Aircraft-maker Bombardier said on Thursday it signed a long-expected deal with Quebec for the Canadian province to invest $1 billion in its CSeries aircraft programme, which has struggled with years of delays and cost overruns.

The agreement leaves the Montreal-based manufacturer – which has an significant operation in Belfast – free to focus on talks with Canada's federal government over possible investment, a deal which is proving much harder to pull off.

Quebec and Bombardier want the federal government to match the province’s $1 billion investment in the narrowbody jet programme. But negotiations have dragged on, with sources close to the talks saying Justin Trudeau’s Liberal government wants changes to the plane-and-train-maker’s dual class share structure.

Quebec transport minister Jacques Daoust said the deal contains a clause that would allow the province to match the terms of any future investment from the federal government.

“I have the option to ask for the same terms,” Mr Daoust said, adding that he still believed a deal with the federal government was possible.

Quebec premier Philippe Couillard said earlier this month the terms of the federal and Quebec deals would need to be complementary, but not necessarily the same.

Should federal investment not materialise, Mr Daoust said the province would not rule out a foreign investor in the CSeries. But he said Quebec would retain veto rights while conditions already negotiated, like keeping Bombardier’s head office in Quebec, would have to be respected.

Bombardier said it would transfer the assets, liabilities and obligations of the programme to a new limited partnership, in which the company will hold a 50.5 percent equity stake and Quebec the rest.

The investment will be made in two instalments of $500 million, the first on June 30th and the second September 1st, Bombardier said.

– Bloomberg