At the end of the parliamentary session before the holidays, Quebec Premier François Legault declared in the House that he wanted to start the year 2025 “as a Lion.”
The Liberal opposition took him at his word and published a press release earlier today in which it called for a “parliamentary commission to hear, in particular, the CEO of [Lion Electric], Marc Bedard.”
The movement is led by Monsef Derraji, spokesperson for Transport and Sustainable Mobility.
In his request, Derraji refers to a Radio-Canada article which, he says, reports the submission of false orders, unrealistic forecasts, superficial optimism and the failure to communicate bad news such as the cancellation of orders or persistent problems with products, particularly trucks. Possible breaches of the Securities Act are also mentioned, the Liberal MP points out.
“In addition, since its creation, Lion Electric has received considerable sums from the Quebec government for a total of $177 million. These repeated investments by the government have given confidence to small investors who have lost everything, sometimes even their life savings,” writes the parliamentary wing of the Quebec Liberal Party.
“What exactly did the CAQ government know about this odious scheme?” asked the opposition spokesperson.
In addition to founding president Marc Bedard, the Liberals want to question in the National Assembly the former super minister Pierre Fitzgibbon who ratified the government investments in Lion, the minister of the economy who succeeded him, Christine Frechette, as well as Genevieve Guilbault, minister of transport and sustainable mobility.
“If the company took advantage of government aid to enrich its executives and deceive small investors, it is urgent to know the truth, to shed light on possible abuses of subsidy programs and to find ways to prevent other similar scenarios from happening again,” concluded Derraji.
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