Canada commits $193.3 million to Quebec aluminum modernization projects

Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada announced $193.3 million in federal Strategic Response Fund support for two Quebec aluminum projects on 23 October. The funding is divided between Rio Tinto’s $818.5 million modernization and decarbonization projects in Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean and Aluminerie Alouette’s $135 million project to modernize and optimize its electrolysis operations. The figures describe announced public support and project budgets, not completed spending.

Rio Tinto is to receive $164.8 million toward work across its regional aluminum value chain. Plans include a new billet casting centre at the Alma smelter, intended to support more value-added aluminum products, and infrastructure upgrades and equipment refurbishment for anode-baking furnaces at Grande-Baie. The government says the work is intended to improve reliability, productivity and long-term competitiveness, while strengthening and decarbonizing regional operations.

Aluminerie Alouette’s $28.5 million federal contribution is for its $135 million electrolysis modernization and optimization project. The release describes intended goals including improved energy performance, industrial competitiveness and lower greenhouse-gas emissions. It does not report measured energy savings or emissions reductions from the project, which remains an investment plan rather than an operating result.

The two projects are expected to maintain approximately 6,000 full-time jobs across Quebec and Canada and support 65 co-op student placements. The figures are expectations attached to the projects, not new jobs created. The release says the work will also involve Canadian research institutions, post-secondary institutions and small and medium-sized businesses.

The announcement places the investments within a broader effort to modernize aluminum processing and protect domestic industrial capacity amid tariff and trade pressures. The government lists nine primary aluminum smelters in Canada: one in Kitimat, British Columbia, and eight in Quebec. It says Alouette produces about 633,000 tonnes of primary aluminum annually and employs more than 1,000 people; those are company and industry context figures, separate from the project funding.

The announced federal share is about one-fifth of the two projects’ combined stated budgets, while the companies and other sources are expected to finance the remaining project costs; the release does not provide a drawdown schedule. For Rio Tinto, the two named works are in different parts of the production chain: casting expands downstream product capability, while furnace refurbishment targets the reliability and efficiency of existing smelting operations. Alouette’s electrolysis work is a separate project with its own announced budget.

The statement describes the announcement as strengthening Canada’s aluminum and critical-minerals sector, but the funded work is specifically at aluminum facilities; it does not announce a new mine or a new critical-mineral extraction project. Its central production-chain focus is upgrading existing industrial assets and increasing the capacity to make value-added aluminum products. The public release does not give construction start dates or completion milestones for either project.