Investissement Québec CEO Guy LeBlanc denies being in a conflict of interest, while the state-owned company made a loan of 20 million to an electric bus manufacturer in which he was a shareholder until 2019 .
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This loan was then converted into a 1% stake in the company, or shares worth over $ 43 million, as of June 16.
The company, the Compagnie Électrique Lion de Saint-Jérôme, also received $ 100 million in conditional repayment loans (colloquially referred to as “forgivable” loans) from Quebec and Ottawa, as announced in March.
Investissement Québec (IQ) granted its convertible loan of 20 million in September 2020. It was then converted into shares when the company went public in May 2021, after having produced 1.5 million in interest, underlines Patrick Gervais, vice-president of corporate communications.
Although he does not have to do so, to avoid any perception of a conflict of interest, Mr. LeBlanc is excluded from any discussion concerning investment decisions involving Compagnie Électrique Lion.
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Isabelle Fontaine, IQ spokesperson
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Spokeswoman Isabelle Fontaine recalls that her big boss sold his shares in Lion and left the position of director he held within the company in April 2019, “that is to say a week before taking up his duties as CEO of IQ ”.
The level of ownership that Guy LeBlanc held in Lion is “confidential in nature,” says the crown corporation. Press however obtained a confidential document from XPND Capital, one of the company’s main shareholders when it went public, dating from the third quarter of 2018. It indicates that Guy LeBlanc then directly owned 0.2% of Lion, and that the company was then worth 113.5 million. Guy LeBlanc’s investment was therefore worth approximately $ 227,000.
At Lion, Patrick Gervais sees no problem in funding IQ. “There are aid programs like any other business, we make no secret of it,” he says. These are loans to move the business forward, there is no conflict of interest for Mr. LeBlanc. ”
PHOTO MARTIN CHAMBERLAND, PRESS ARCHIVES
The Premier of Quebec, François Legault, and the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau, last March, during the announcement of a 100 million dollar investment for the construction of a battery assembly plant for electric vehicles of the Lion Electric Company.
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“Monopoly”, denounce its rivals
Lion has been at the center of a controversy since June 8. Press reported that Lion’s competitors criticized the government for offering it a monopoly on the school bus market in Quebec on a silver platter.
In April, the government decreed an obligation to use electric buses to transport students. The measure is in addition to a subsidy program for the purchase of such vehicles, but only if they are built in Canada. Only the Lion models and a minibus from its competitor Girardin meet these criteria.
“The word ‘monopoly’ describes the situation well. There is a market orientation in their favor which is voluntary, denounces Michel Daneault, vice-president of Autobus Girardin, in an interview. Lion’s market share will drop from 1% to 80%! ”
With the mayor of Drummondville and the boss of another Lion rival, Autobus Thomas, Michel Daneault even went out on June 15 to denounce what they qualify as “very great inequity”. However, he does not want to comment on the loan his competitor received from IQ. “I will not be able to comment on that aspect of the file. ”
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