Northvolt layoffs: PQ calls for emergency debate [Video]

Quebec City –

As the difficulties mount for battery manufacturer Northvolt, the Parti Québécois (PQ) is calling for an emergency debate in the Quebec legislature on Tuesday to find out more about the agreement between the Quebec government and the Swedish multinational.

PQ leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon says that the Legault government lacks transparency in this matter. On Monday, Northvolt announced it was laying off 1,600 employees in Sweden or one-fifth of its workforce.

The company, set to build a plant on Montreal’s South Shore with financial support from the Quebec government, is struggling and has to scale back its operations.

“We’d like investment in Quebec to work in the interests of all Quebecers, but we can’t afford to be blindsided when the context changes radically either,” said Plamondon at a press briefing at the National Assembly on Monday.

The PQ is not prepared to say that the government should pull out of the project, at least for …