More than 1,500 new jobs

St. Laurent’s mayor previously hinted that new job opportunities would arise in the coming months when asked about the Flextronics lay-offs in June.

And it wasn’t long before it happened.

On July 13, during the Farnborough International Airshow held in the United Kingdom, Bombardier announced that its board of directors authorized the launch of the CSeries; a new type of commercial jet airliners with five-seat rows.

The third largest aircraft company in the world hopes to bring in new clients with its latest product, which features more fuel-efficient engines and a higher percentage of composite materials in its fuselage. The new airliners are currently projected to enter service in 2013.

With the launch of this new family of aircrafts, a new assembly site will be built in Mirabel, while the manufacture of part of the fuselage and cockpit will take place at Bombardier’s St. Laurent site. This means that no less than 1,100 jobs will be created in the borough. “This part of the program will take place in our St. Laurent facility, near our new product development center which is the very core of our growing CSeries team”, confirmed Guy C. Hachey, president and chief operating officer at Bombardier Aerospace.

About 500 engineers will be hired in the next two years to work in the Technoparc’s engineering center.

At one point, many feared that the CSeries program was going abroad, but now only the aircraft wings will be designed and manufactured at Bombardier’s facility in Belfast, Northern Ireland.

The Canadian company will receive government loans of respectively $118 million and $350 million from Quebec and Ottawa. The governments’ repayable investments will be refunded with each plane sold. Two models will be available: 110 or 130-seat with an approximate list price of $46.7 million US. Both are labelled as the greenest single-aisle aircraft in its class as well as the less noisy.

Northern Ireland and British government department will also contribute with repayable investments.

There might be one dark cloud over this great news as some of Bombardier’s competitors plan on filing a case to the World Trade Organization. The companies question the legality of the state and national investments in regards to international jurisdiction. However, Bombardier is confident that everything will go through smoothly.

St. Laurent’s mayor didn’t take long to comment either: “For St. Laurent, such an announcement means numerous positive things. As our community keeps growing, the 1,100 high-quality jobs that will be created over the next 20 years at the Bombardier facility on Marcel-Laurin Boulevard will without a doubt convince more young families to choose St. Laurent not only to work but to live.”

Aerospace is one of the most prominent sectors in St. Laurent as 42 businesses and more than 10,500 people work in that field. “It’s the financial sector that generates the most indirect spin-off,” said Développement économique Saint-Laurent President François Jobin. “This news is not only great on a global level, but also for local economy. It will increase the number of opportunities for contract manufacturers; it will also help the creation of new related businesses and of course new jobs. Développement économique Saint-Laurent is already hard at work in the aerospace sector and we’ll help any business that would like to join in.”

(Translated by Pascal LeBlanc)