Quebec, whose wildfires have darkened the New York skyline and spread an orange haze from Massachusetts to South Carolina, sold green bonds back at home.
The French-speaking province raised C$600 million ($449 million) by tapping its green bonds maturing in November 2032 at a spread of 68 basis points over Canada’s government bonds, according to people with knowledge of the matter. The notes were earlier marketed at a spread of around 68.5 basis points.
Proceeds from the bond sale are expected to be mostly used to finance clean transportation projects, including a light rail system for Quebec City, the province said in a June 8 presentation on its website. The issuer’s green bond program allows it to allocate resources in four categories including climate change adaptation.
The province’s bond arrangers priced the transaction as Canada leads the world right now in the number of powerful blazes over the past 24 hours, data from NASA satellites show, with more than 400 forest fires active across the country and many of them raging out of control. Prime Minister Justin Trudeau blamed climate change for exacerbating the problem and said that hundreds of US firefighters have arrived in Canada.
Inbound flights to New York’s LaGuardia Airport were grounded for a second day due to low visibility, while the Federal Aviation Administration warned that flights could also be halted at JFK, Newark and Teterboro.
“Given the wildfire crisis in Quebec and across Canada, every investment should help cut emissions and build climate resilience,” said Julie Segal, senior program manager for climate finance at Environmental Defence Canada, a nonprofit policy advocacy organization. “Quebec is right to continue investing in solutions that reduce emissions, like through this green bond for public transportation.”
A representative for Quebec’s Ministry of Finance didn’t respond to a request for comment.
--With assistance from Mathieu Dion and Christine Buurma.
(Adds pricing terms of the deal and advocacy group comment in first, second and sixth paragraphs.)
