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There are several major files confronting the new Liberal government that need only one-word titles. ISIS. Refugees. Climate. Pipelines. Deficit.

There’s another one that threatens to drive a wedge through the Liberal caucus between its Ontario and Quebec MPs, particularly those representing Toronto and Montreal: Bombardier.

The Quebec government has just invested $1 billion in Bombardier’s signature C-Series passenger jet, which is running two years behind schedule and, at $5 billion in costs to date, is $2 billion over budget.

Bombardier and Quebec are asking Ottawa to match the investment, a request that Justin Trudeau has said will be considered on the merits of “the business case” made by the Montreal-based aerospace and rail transportation company.

A federal cash injection of $1 billion certainly would help stabilize the C-Series in the rollout phase of production. Bombardier is betting its future on getting orders for the C-Series, which is meant to position the company to compete in the mid-size passenger jet market against Boeing, Airbus and Embraer, formidable American, European and Brazilian aerospace players.

And nothing is more important for the C-Series than a $2.1 billion order for 30 jets from Porter Airlines. Porter’s hub is at Toronto’s downtown Billy Bishop Airport. Which is where the wedge comes in.

Jets aren’t allowed to land at the Toronto Island airport, and there’s plenty of local opposition to the proposal to expand the runway on the Toronto waterfront to enable the C-Series to fly into Billy Bishop. Any change in the status quo requires the trilateral agreement of Toronto City Council, the Port of Toronto and the federal government.

And the Liberal caucus for the Greater Toronto Area is opposed — adamantly — to jets landing at the island. Before the election, the GTA caucus wrote to Mayor John Tory and Toronto City Council affirming that “we have pledged not to re-open the Tripartite Agreement” excluding jets from serving Billy Bishop.

Since the election, prominent Toronto MP Adam Vaughan, himself a former city councilor, has bluntly stated: “No jets on the waterfront.”

This was confirmed in a late-night tweet a week ago by Transport Minister Marc Garneau, who stated that the “GoC position is the same as the LPC commitment, we will not re-open the tripartite agreement at YTZ (Billy Bishop).”

Only hours earlier, scrumming in the lobby of the House, Garneau skillfully sidestepped the question, saying the government was considering all aspects of what he called “a complex issue.”

And so here’s the dilemma for Trudeau: How can he, on the one hand, invest $1 billion in the C-Series, while on the other killing the $2 billion Porter order by enforcing the ban at the Island Airport? And so here’s the dilemma for Trudeau: How can he, on the one hand, invest $1 billion in the C-Series, while on the other killing the $2 billion Porter order by enforcing the ban at the Island Airport?

There was nothing complex about Garneau’s tweet. CTV Toronto reported it might have been “the final nail in the coffin” for the C-Series. The Globe and Mail online ran this headline: “Garneau says the government has no intention of letting passenger jets fly out of the Toronto Islands.” The Toronto Star reported last weekend that “a potential $2.1-billion sale of the planes to Porter Airlines fell through on Friday because it was conditioned on growth at Toronto’s downtown airport, which has now been blocked.”

There was consternation, to say the least, in Bombardier’s executive offices in Montreal; they heard this news not from the government, but from Twitter. Many senior Bombardier executives, including members of the Beaudoin family, are Garneau’s own constituents in his riding of NDG-Westmount. As a former president of the Canadian Space Agency in Montreal, Garneau knows better than anyone the importance of the aerospace industry to the local economy. It isn’t just that thousands of high-paying manufacturing jobs depend on Bombardier; there’s also great pride in the company as a global player. How many world champions does Canada have?

This is equally true on the rail side. The Quebec pension plan, the Caisse de dépôt, announced Thursday a $1.5 billion investment in a 30 per cent stake in Bombardier Transportation, a global player in the train, subway and streetcar space (Toronto is one of its showcase cities, and many of those cars are built in Thunder Bay.) As Caisse President Michael Sabia noted, the whole world is investing in urban transport infrastructure.

Garneau and the prime minister are both Montreal ministers, and both understand the importance of the Bombardier file to the city and Quebec.

But Bombardier is also, in a way that isn’t always appreciated, a player in the Ontario economy. The 400-series turbo prop, the heart of the Porter and Air Canada Express fleets, is manufactured in Toronto at Bombardier’s Downsview plant. And a Bombardier corporate brochure notes the C-Series alone has 10 Ontario-based suppliers. As for local concerns about the noise from the jet, it has tested as the quietest in its class.

Of course, you can always count on some people in Ontario and the West to complain about corporate welfare for Bombardier. But there’s an intellectual double-standard at work here.

No voices were raised against Ottawa’s $10 billion bailout of General Motors and Chrysler in 2009. Without that money, as then-Finance Minister Jim Flaherty confided at the time, “GM and Chrysler would have left the country.”

And so here’s the dilemma for Trudeau as he considers “the business case” for the C-Series from his own side of the table.

How can he, on the one hand, invest $1 billion in the C-Series, while on the other killing the $2 billion Porter order by enforcing the ban at the Island Airport?

There’s a possible Canadian compromise on the horizon. While Billy Bishop is Porter’s hub, the new express train from nearby Union Station could take connecting passengers to Pearson Airport in just 24 minutes. Air Canada might not like it, but it would solve the problem.

And not just Bombardier’s problem, but Trudeau’s as well.

L. Ian MacDonald is editor of Policy, the bi-monthly magazine of Canadian politics and public policy. He is the author of five books. He served as chief speechwriter to Prime Minister Brian Mulroney from 1985-88, and later as head of the public affairs division of the Canadian Embassy in Washington from 1992-94. The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.