Bombardier is an hour away from meeting with investors in New York, and it’s not wasting any time setting expectations. The plane and train maker is warning that adjusted profit will fall next year because of the CSeries ramp-up and slower production rates for its global aircraft. Today, the company’s test will be proving to shareholders that Quebec’s bailout and the Caisse’s investment will stabilize its liquidity.
Risk and reward
Re Bombardier Pushes For $1-Billion In Federal Aid (Dec. 1):
So if the government invests in Bombardier, it will show that it's "committed to playing in the aerospace big league, with the risk and reward that entails."
Risk and reward indeed. We get it: Aerospace jobs pay well and government gets the income tax generated. But with the Beaudoin family maintaining tight control through the multiple voting shares it holds, Bombardier is unable to attract enough private capital, as new investors want an equal say in how the business is run. So off to Ottawa and Quebec goes Mr. Bellemare, looking for taxpayers to shore up the balance sheet. Enough freebies. Risk and reward? To get the money, you must simplify the share structure and get some private capital in along with the taxpayer money. Give Ottawa and Quebec some shares/warrants to participate in the upside.
Marc Doré, Montreal West
Green team
Re Quebec Facing Its Own 'Dirty' Energy Problem (Nov. 27):
Konrad Yakabuski does us a favour by reminding us of Hydro-Québec's electricity exports to the U.S. Northeast. New Yorkers regularly comfort themselves with talk of their reliance on "green" Quebec energy. What they ignore is that the northern hydro dams and reservoirs built by Hydro-Québec cover an area equivalent to Connecticut.
Those now-drowned boreal forests and peatlands sequestered significant amounts of atmospheric carbon and sustained a vast legacy of biological diversity. They were also the homeland of native Cree, now dispossessed. The residents of Connecticut would not be so conveniently dispossessed.
John Riley, Mono, Ont.
While world leaders confer about climate change in Paris, it is inconceivable that any environmental group would ignore the advantages of hydro power, the only source of clean, renewable energy that can meet base-load demand.
All serious scientific reviews have demonstrated that Quebec hydro has very low carbon emissions. All credible environmentalist groups acknowledge this. Thanks to Hydro-Québec's 2014 exports, the equivalent of the yearly emissions of 850,000 vehicles were avoided in New England alone.
The Sierra Club criticizes the Romaine project but understands nothing of its design, which minimizes flooding and keeps carbon emissions to a minimum.
With climate change, doing nothing is not an option. The various initiatives under way in New England demonstrate that regional decision-makers are willing to act. Hydro-Québec knows its energy is part of the solution to climate change.
Éric Martel, president and CEO, Hydro-Québec
The column focuses on the claims of one opposition group and ignores the diverse support the project has earned in New Hampshire. For decades, New England has long relied on imported Quebec hydro to provide a reliable, affordable and clean energy supply. The Northern Pass project and its Forward NH Plan have been endorsed by a cross-section of state stakeholders, including some of the largest manufacturers and employers, leading elected officials, major labour organizations, the largest chambers of commerce and several municipalities. It has the editorial support of our state's largest newspapers.
It is ironic that the Sierra Club, which has long pushed for the closure of New England's fossil-fired generating plants, is now opposing a clean energy project. Northern Pass will keep our region on track toward meeting carbon reduction goals and provide New Hampshire with significant economic benefits.
Bill Quinlan, president of New Hampshire Operations, Eversource Energy, Manchester, N.H.