As Bombardier employees across the province wait in limbo, wondering whether they will be one of the 2,500 to get the axe, Quebec’s Economy Minister is scrambling industry leaders to help find them a place to land.
“I think it’s highly possible that there will be zero impact on the families of Bombardier employees,” said Pierre Fitzgibbon, at a press conference outside the offices of Aero Montreal, Monday morning.
The Ministry of the Economy will work with Emploi Quebec and industry stakeholders to provide job training programs to help laid off employees transition into similar jobs within the aerospace industry, according the Minister.
“We will do our job to help this transition, for sure,” he said. “We are going to look at what are the requirements of the current businesses, and we are going to do the matching.”
David Chartrand represents Quebec machinists and aerospace workers. He and other industry leaders stood alongside Fitzgibbon during the post-meeting press conference, and shared in his confidence.
“We have a lot of companies that are sitting around this table, that are all looking for people presently, and are looking for manpower,” he said.
Notably absent from the discussions was the man who sparked them, Bombardier CEO Alain Bellemare; a representative attended on his behalf.
“We’re glad to see today that the cluster is stepping up, and saying hey, we want those talents,” said Olivier Marcil, Vice President of External Relations.