While Prime Minister François Legault does not rule out cutting off hydro to the Americans in response to Donald Trump, his Minister of Energy is more cautious on the issue than his leader.
• Also read: Legault does not rule out cutting Americans’ hydro to respond to Trump
• Also read: The Canadian dollar could fall to 65 US cents with tariffs of 25%, warns Desjardins
When a journalist asked her, Thursday, on the sidelines of a speech at the Chamber of Commerce of Metropolitan Montreal (CCMM), if she could stop exporting electricity to the Americans in response, she walked on eggs.
“I am not suggesting that we will consider it, but it is an option,” replied the Minister of Energy.
“We do not want to spread out all the measures that we could take before we are faced with a problematic situation,” she indicated.
“There will be reprisals if tariffs are imposed, but the very nature of these reprisals is to be defined,” she said.
Demonstrators who fear the privatization of Hydro-Québec welcomed the elite of business in front of the Montreal hotel on Thursday. Pierre-Guy Silvestre, economist at CUPE, is against Bill 69. “We are against the privatization of distribution assets,” he denounces.
Francis Halin’s photo
The day before, surrounded by the prime ministers of the provinces, François Legault had said he was excluding nothing.
“Currently, we are not excluding anything. There are several scenarios considered, but we are not excluding anything,” the Prime Minister replied to a question relating to Quebec hydroelectricity as a negotiating lever.
The CEO of Hydro-Québec, Michael Sabia, was present at the CCMM conference on Thursday. We see him here surrounded by Jérôme Pécresse, CEO of Rio Tinto Aluminum, and Hélène Desmarais, co-chair of the board of directors of Scale AI, and to his right, Bicha Ngo, CEO of Investissement Québec.
Francis Halin’s photo
No 51e État
In front of a business elite, Christine Fréchette recalled, Thursday noon, that more than 70% of our merchandise exports go to the United States, which represents 400,000 jobs here, and that more than 10,000 of our companies operate there. business.
“Our plan A is not to become the 51e State of the United States is to avoid customs tariffs,” the minister hammered out like a slogan.
“It is the Americans who will pay the largest share of the tariffs, if there are tariffs,” she insisted.
The CEO of the CCMM, Michel Leblanc, spoke with the Minister of the Economy, Christine Fréchette.
Photo provided by Olivier Samson Arcand – Cosmos Image
«Competitiveness leave»
At a time when Desjardins economists estimate that the imposition of customs tariffs of 25% could lower the Canadian dollar exchange rate to a meager 65 US cents, the minister insisted on the importance of remaining productive.
“If the value of the dollar falls, it should not be a sort of competitive holiday for our businesses,” she illustrated.
“We don’t need to be as efficient when the value of the Canadian dollar decreases because the price paid by the American will be attractive,” she concluded.
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