In 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, François Legault went to get Sophie Brochu to lead Hydro-Québec for a term of five years, the statutory duration for a CEO of the most important Quebec state company. After three years, Sophie Brochu left without completing her work.
The three CEOs before her had completed their term. Éric Martel only served a five-year term, but André Caillé remained eight years and Thierry Vandal had accumulated two terms. Usually, a competent CEO of Hydro-Québec does not leave his position before his term, and, by Sophie Brochu’s own admission, the job was captivating. At 59, the resigner still has many good years ahead of her as a company director.
Sophie Brochu is an outstanding communicator. To hear him, it seems that nothing opposed him to the Mega-Minister of Economy, Innovation and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon. “I’m not quitting because I’m in conflict with the government,” she said. Tensions, there were; Nothing more normal. If there isn’t, it’s because we’re dead, she said.
Recalling that she had presented Hydro-Québec’s 2022-2026 strategic plan — it was last spring — Sophie Brochu described herself in the interviews she gave as an architect, while her successor, him , will pose as a builder. It’s a nice metaphor, but it doesn’t apply to the one who held both roles for 12 years at Énergir, as president and chief executive officer, a company she undeniably helped build.
Sophie Brochu announces her departure after taking part, in December, in a first meeting of the new committee for the economy and energy transition, which is chaired by François Legault and which brings together the ministers of the Economy, Finance, Environment and Indigenous Relations, as well as the CEO of the crown corporation. It must be believed that the meeting did not inspire her.
In his press briefing on Wednesday, François Legault spoke of “a choice that is personal”. There were no “differences of orientation” between the government and the CEO, which the main interested party also endeavored to support on various platforms by announcing her departure for the month of April .
The last strategic plan, which contrasted with the previous ones, was not likely to encourage an economic vision where green energy sold at low cost would make it possible to attract industrial activities as lucrative as they are energy-intensive. The era of electricity surpluses was over, and the decarbonization of the Quebec economy would require Hydro-Quebec to increase the number of its available TWh by 50% by 2050.
Last fall, the CEO said that Quebec should not turn into a “Dollarama of electricity”. She issued the following warning: “What should not be done is to attract an undue number of industrial kilowatt-hours who want to pay a low price and, after that, build dams to supply them because we lack of energy. It couldn’t be clearer.
The Premier reiterated that closing the wealth gap with Ontario remained his obsession. It relies on electricity from Hydro-Québec to boost economic development. Some fifty business projects from here and elsewhere are on Pierre Fitzgibbon’s table, projects that represent 40% of Hydro-Québec’s current production. It’s way, way too much.
The government will have to tell us how it intends to square the circle. Hydro-Québec no longer has a surplus, and the cost of new supplies — the marginal cost of electricity — is 11 cents per kWh, about three times the current average cost. It is clear that the more Hydro-Québec increases its production capacity, the more the rates will increase.
In an interview granted last November to the economic journalist Jean-Philippe Décarie, Sophie Brochu affirmed that she was not against the idea that Hydro-Québec participates in economic development “in a sensible way”. You have to find what is best for the greatest number, she said. “Hydro-Québec is not a shop economic, not a shop environmental, not a shop native, not a shop social: we are all of that at the same time. »
Sophie Brochu is leaving at a pivotal moment in the evolution of Hydro-Québec, a moment when Quebecers — and not just businesses — will have to mobilize and participate in the vast project of a transition made up of energy efficiency and sobriety. This is what must be done before thinking about getting Quebec’s beavers involved in the construction of new dams.