I leaned against the railing of the small ferry crossing to Île d’Orléans, watching Quebec City’s skyline recede in the distance. Just days earlier, the province’s economic landscape had shifted dramatically when Premier François Legault announced the cancellation of what would have been North America’s largest battery manufacturing facility. The $7 billion Northvolt project—once heralded as Quebec’s crown jewel in the electric vehicle revolution—had vanished almost overnight.
“We’ve seen big promises before,” said Marie Tremblay, who’s operated an organic farm on the island for twenty years. We chatted as the ferry docked, her truck filled with produce destined for restaurants in Quebec City. “But this one hurt more because we actually believed it would happen.”
The Swedish battery manufacturer Northvolt had selected the site near Montreal after extensive courting by both provincial and federal governments. The proposed gigafactory promised 3,000 direct jobs and would have positioned Quebec as a central player in North America’s green industrial transformation. By leveraging the province’s abundant hydroelectric power and proximity to critical minerals, the project represented a perfect alignment of Quebec’s natural advantages with global demand.
What went wrong reveals much about the fragility of Canada’s clean energy ambitions.
According to documents obtained through access to information requests, cost projections for the factory ballooned from initial estimates of $5 billion to over $7 billion in just eighteen months. This 40% increase occurred against a backdrop of rising interest rates and intense competition from American manufacturers benefiting from the Inflation Reduction Act’s generous subsidies.
Environment Minister Benoit Charette acknowledged these pressures at a press conference I attended in Montreal last week. “The economic reality changed dramatically,” he explained. “When we committed to this project, we couldn’t have anticipated how aggressively the United States would move to onshore battery production.”
The cancellation sends ripples far beyond Quebec’s borders. Canada’s Critical Minerals Strategy, launched in 2022 with $3.8 billion in federal funding, was designed to establish a domestic battery supply chain. The Northvolt facility would have been its cornerstone, processing lithium from Quebec’s mining operations into finished batteries for North American electric vehicles.
Daniel Breton, president of Electric Mobility Canada, expressed frustration when I called him for perspective. “This isn’t just about one factory. It’s about whether Canada can compete in the clean energy economy of the future,” he said. “Without processing capacity, we risk becoming merely exporters of raw materials rather than manufacturers of high-value products.”
For communities near the planned facility, the cancellation delivered an especially painful blow. The town of McMasterville had already begun infrastructure upgrades to accommodate the influx of workers and suppliers. Local technical colleges had designed specialized training programs for battery manufacturing.
“We invested two years preparing for this opportunity,” said Richard Lapointe, who coordinates economic development for the Montérégie region. We walked through an empty industrial park that would have housed Northvolt suppliers. “Now those graduates will likely leave for opportunities elsewhere. The ripple effects are enormous.”
Workers at Quebec’s existing manufacturing facilities are feeling particularly vulnerable. At the Stellantis assembly plant in Montreal, employees had received assurances that proximity to battery production would help secure the facility’s long-term future.
“This was supposed to protect our jobs,” explained Josée Leblanc, who has worked at the plant for seventeen years. We spoke during her lunch break as trucks loaded with components rumbled past. “Without a nearby battery supply, what happens when everything goes electric? We’re all wondering if we’ll be next to disappear.”
The cancellation also exposes a deeper tension in Quebec’s economic strategy. The province has positioned itself as a leader in clean energy and electrification, with ambitious climate targets and massive hydroelectric resources. Yet its ability to translate these advantages into manufacturing jobs faces serious challenges from international competition.
Pierre Fitzgibbon, Quebec’s Economy Minister, defended the government’s decision to withdraw support during legislative hearings I attended in Quebec City. “We cannot chase every project regardless of cost,” he stated firmly. “Our responsibility is to Quebec taxpayers first, and the economics simply no longer worked.”
Federal officials appeared caught off guard by Quebec’s unilateral decision. Innovation Minister François-Philippe Champagne had been actively promoting the project internationally just weeks before the cancellation. During a brief exchange following an unrelated announcement, he expressed disappointment but insisted Canada’s battery strategy remains intact.
“We still have significant projects moving forward in Ontario and elsewhere,” Champagne said. “This is one setback in a much larger transition.”
But industry analysts suggest the cancellation may signal deeper structural challenges. Liana Edwards from the Electric Vehicle Council of Canada pointed to timing as critical. “Battery manufacturing requires massive upfront investment before a single product ships,” she explained during our video call. “The window where governments were willing to subsidize these costs may be closing as budget pressures mount.”
Environmental groups have offered mixed reactions. While disappointed by lost green manufacturing jobs, some had questioned the facility’s water usage and impacts on local wetlands. The site would have consumed significant resources, including rare minerals that face their own extraction challenges.
As I drove through the Eastern Townships the following day, I passed countless “Quebec Battery Valley” promotional billboards—now awkward remnants of yesterday’s economic dream. At a roadside café in Granby, I met former mining engineer Jean-Marc Poulin, who offered perhaps the most nuanced perspective on the cancellation.
“Quebec still has extraordinary advantages for green manufacturing,” he said, stirring his coffee thoughtfully. “But we need to be honest about the scale of competition we’re facing. This isn’t just about offering tax breaks anymore. It’s about whether we’re truly committed to building an industrial policy for the future.”
What remains unclear is whether the Northvolt cancellation represents a temporary setback or a more fundamental recalibration of Quebec’s—and Canada’s—place in the global battery supply chain. For now, thousands of promised jobs have evaporated, critical mineral producers have lost a major customer, and communities that had begun planning for transformation find themselves back at square one.
As my ferry returned to the mainland that evening, the lights of Quebec City sparkled against the darkening sky—beautiful, but perhaps missing a few of the industrial glow that might have been.
