The “privatization” of Hydro-Québec that a series of groups have been talking about for two weeks when discussing Bill 69 on energy does not worry the Conseil du patronat du Québec (CPQ), which instead pleaded on Wednesday to remove the barriers faced by private electricity distributors.
While in Quebec City to comment on the bill “ensuring responsible governance of energy resources,” CPQ President and CEO Karl Blackburn suggested to the Minister of Economy and Energy, Christine Fréchette, that she make amendments to her legislative text to allow producers to distribute their energy to several consumers, without them being their neighbours.
Currently, Bill 69 opens the door to the distribution of electricity from private to private, but only to one customer. Moreover, this customer must be located “on a site adjacent to the production site.”
“We believe that the bill could go further,” Mr. Blackburn said Wednesday, arguing in the same breath that Quebec would deprive itself of “an interesting potential” if the bill were adopted as currently written.
In his view, allowing private distribution “to multiple consumers and to customers located beyond these geographic restrictions” would simply have the effect of “maximizing the use of available resources.”
“Can the private sector come and help Quebec society by producing energy, by supplying customers, [tant] that it remains a collective good?” he asked aloud in front of Minister Fréchette.
The latter had just asked him what he would say “to those who are worried that we are making a breach in Hydro-Québec’s monopoly.”
Since the start of the special consultations surrounding Bill 69 last week, a number of groups have appeared before parliamentarians requesting the complete withdrawal of the articles allowing the distribution of surplus electricity by a private player to another consumer.
In a hard-hitting brief last Thursday, a Hydro workers’ union called on the government to back down, under penalty of “a dispossession of our assets for the benefit of private entrepreneurs.” “The bill gives the minister exceptional powers and facilitates in an unprecedented way the privatization of electricity production and distribution in Quebec,” it wrote.
Special consultations on Bill 69 will end on Thursday. Minister Fréchette will then have the opportunity to make changes during the clause-by-clause study stage, the dates for which have not yet been set.