Quebec battery sector investments spark accountability debate
Auditor General found $2.2B in subsidies were "poorly planned" and carrying "significant risks"—Legault defends the early bets.
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Quebec's Auditor General has delivered a damning assessment of the CAQ government's battery sector investments, but former Premier François Legault is pushing back against the conclusion that the strategy was flawed.
Christine Roy's audit examined 29 files related to 11 companies in the battery sector that collectively received approximately $2.2 billion in authorized financial assistance as of September 30, 2025. The Auditor General said the government's investments were "poorly planned" and that "significant risks" were not "sufficiently considered."
Of that sum, $760 million went to four companies that filed for creditor protection under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act. Another $90 million was authorized for two companies whose projects were suspended or abandoned, and $1 billion for three companies whose costs increased more than 100 percent.
Legault acknowledged the geopolitical uncertainties but defended the government's broader approach. "It was difficult to plan the development of an entire nascent industry," he wrote on social media Monday. "We were also dependent on companies that would agree to invest in Quebec. We were in a case-by-case dynamic." He noted that Quebec has significant lithium reserves and that some processing should happen here rather than exporting unprocessed resources.
Legault pointed to economic outcomes: since 2018, when the government took what he calls a "more dynamic approach to attract business investment," economic growth per capita in Quebec has been stronger than in the rest of Canada.
The Auditor General's report notes that the $760 million authorized to companies under creditor protection "should not be considered as the total of the losses, since part of these sums have not been disbursed, and others have been recovered or could be recovered in the future."
Premier Christine Fréchette, who has promised to reduce economic interventionism, defended her government by stating that 95 percent of the losses in the battery sector were linked to just two companies: Northvolt and Lion Electric. She said she halted further public funding to those two projects due to "too much exposure to risk."