How was Boeing, which “nearly brought the Canadian aeronautical industry to the ground,” able to obtain a multi-billion dollar contract without a call for tenders from the Trudeau government? Bombardier President and CEO Éric Martel searches hard, but he is unable to think of a logical hypothesis.
“Today there is an assembly plant for the A220 [from Airbus], the old C Series [developed by Bombardier], in the United States because of them, says the big boss of the Quebec aircraft manufacturer, Monday, in an interview with La Presse. Otherwise, there would be many more people assembling planes in Mirabel. »
Irritated, Mr. Martel still cannot digest the way Ottawa managed the replacement of the aging Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) surveillance and anti-submarine warfare aircraft. Valued at 10.4 billion, the agreement was granted over the counter to Boeing on November 30, despite public outings from Bombardier – supported in particular by Quebec and Ontario – which asked for a chance to compete with the American giant.
The manager still does not understand how this “huge gift” could have been given to Boeing, which had nevertheless caused an outcry in the country in 2017. The multinational had temporarily succeeded in convincing Washington to impose massive punitive duties (292%) on the C Series by alleging that Bombardier had obtained undue subsidies to sell its aircraft at prices considered derisory.
“It’s a company that almost brought the Canadian aeronautical industry to the ground,” recalls Mr. Martel. They played hard back then. There were significant consequences and there is no one other than them [responsible]. Sometimes we have a short memory. However, it was this government [Trudeau] that was in office at the time. »
Boeing ended up being dismissed by the American courts in 2018, but the damage had already been done at Bombardier. Financially weakened, the Quebec company allowed Airbus to take control of the C Series. To ease trade tensions in the United States, an assembly line for the aircraft was set up in Mobile, Alabama, to serve the aircraft’s American customers.
The Trudeau government had justified its decision to purchase up to 16 copies of Boeing’s Poseidon P-8A – assembled in the United States – to replace its aging CP-140 Aurora by asserting that the American aircraft manufacturer’s aircraft was already in service, contrary to Bombardier’s “concept”. The Quebec company wanted to offer a militarized version of its Global 6500 private jet. Such a version of the device does not yet fly, an element which visibly worked against the company. In exchange, Boeing will have to generate economic benefits equivalent to its portion of the contract, or approximately 5.4 billion.
These are just excuses, in Mr. Martel’s eyes. He says he is stunned by the weakness of the federal policy for purchasing military equipment. An example: Ottawa took more than 15 years before finally buying F-35s to replace its old CF-18s before granting, in record time, a private contract to Boeing. He is surprised to have seen the timelines change in the surveillance planes file. Initially, deliveries were to begin in 2030. Last week, we were talking more about 2026, Mr. Martel is surprised.
“The process is broken in Canada,” he laments, reaffirming that Bombardier would have been fully capable of manufacturing a device at the cutting edge of technology, at lower cost and less polluting than the Poseidon. “As president of Bombardier, I would never put my company at risk. »
Bombardier is banking heavily on the defense sector as part of its financial recovery. The aircraft manufacturer has delivered aircraft specialized in surveillance missions to countries such as the United States and Germany. Despite the Trudeau government’s decision, the “trajectory” will not change for the aircraft manufacturer, says Mr. Martel.
The top boss of the business jet maker is so convinced of the quality of the product he wanted to offer the RCAF that he believes the United States and other NATO countries will eventually buy.
“For once, we could have been ahead of the parade,” he says about the federal government’s decision.
On the economic front, there is no doubt that the Trudeau government’s decision will have “major” consequences in the country. If some, like the Minister of Industry, François-Philippe Champagne, talk about the creation of 3,000 jobs in the country by granting the $9 billion contract to Boeing, Mr. Martel retorts that Bombardier would have created 22,000 if it had had the chance to participate in the call for tenders and win the contract.
Asked to know what the political consequences of such a decision will be, Mr. Martel did not want to come forward. But he says he is convinced that Canadians will ask questions for a long time about the decision to exclude a Canadian company from such an important military contract. The latter did not want to say whether the Quebec manufacturer intended to turn to the courts to appeal Ottawa’s decision. This scenario is still under study, he limited himself to saying.
