Not “a penny more” for the Nemaska Lithium project, Quebec premier says
Posted November 7, 2026 12:18 pm.
Premier Paul St-Pierre Plamondon confirmed that his government will not put “one more cent” into the Nemaska Lithium project in Bécancour, which quickly prompted a reaction from former Premier François Legault.
St-Pierre Plamondon indicated on Friday, in a post on X, that the Minister of Economic Development, Innovation and Energy, Stéphane Paquet, announced that the government “would no longer play in this bad movie”.
“In recent years, I have been very critical of projects like Northvolt. This was also the case for Nemaska Lithium which, over the past ten years, has squandered 1.2 billion of public funds on a risky battery plant project,” the premier stated.
The Nemaska Lithium project may lack funding for the construction of its plant, reported the investigative bureau of the Journal de Montréal.
“During the election campaign, we promised the public that our government would change its economic approach. We are staying the course on our objective of ending the open bar of subsidies to finance a historic tax cut for Quebec SMEs,” added St-Pierre Plamondon.
This statement prompted a reaction from former premier François Legault, who initiated the project, and who left a comment under the PQ member’s post.
“It should be remembered that Nemaska Lithium owns the Whabouchi lithium mine. Does the PQ government want all lithium mines in Quebec to be owned by foreigners?” he wrote in a comment.
“Does the PQ government want all the processing of our natural resources to take place abroad?” Legault asked.
–This report by La Presse Canadienne was translated by CityNews
