The agreement in principle between the electric-bus manufacturer and the City of Saint-Jérôme to build a battery-production facility, which for a symbolic $1 price tag comes with a 25-year lease and municipal-tax holiday, would be an illegal subsidy under World Trade Organization laws, according to experts contacted by La Presse. (La Presse)

Talking point: There is good reason for Saint-Jérôme to want to keep Lion Electric happy. The company, which has sold 300 of its electric school buses in the U.S. and Canada since 2016, is headquartered in the Quebec municipality, but recently said the U.S. has been lobbying it to build its battery plant south of the border. The agreement with Saint-Jérôme would see the company build a facility of at least 150,000 square feet on a more-than 450,000-square-foot lot. Quebec’s environment ministry recently told The Logic that the made-in-Quebec provisions of the province’s new green plan are “in compliance with international trade commitments.”