Aircraft engine maker Pratt & Whitney Canada says it will invest $575.3 million in a new plant beside Mirabel airport north of Montreal to assemble and test cleaner, quieter and more efficient jet engines.

The money, to be spent over five years, is expected to create 565 jobs, the company said Monday in a release.

The 300,000-square-foot plant is expected to open in the fall of 2009.

Company president Alain Bellemare commended the Quebec government for investing $141.9 million in infrastructure and equipment to support the project.

The Pratt & Whitney announcement was made on the same day that the CBC's French-language television news service reported that government sources have confirmed Quebec Premier Jean Charest will call a provincial election next week, once the U.S. presidential election is over.

Pratt & Whitney said the factory will house "a world-class aerospace centre" at Mirabel, where it will do the final assembly and tests for the PW810 engine.

In February, the company said it had won a huge contract to provide the more efficient PW810 engines for the Cessna Citation Columbus large business jet.

The new plant will also be the global hub for Pratt & Whitney’s flight test operations, the company said.