Quebec Premier Francois Legault believes lower electricity rates could encourage Hydro-Quebec subscribers to wash their dishes at night. A scenario which, according to the Minister of Finance Éric Girard, will however have to be done without impact on the revenues of the State.
Mr. Legault ruled out the possibility of raising electricity rates to promote energy efficiency for residential Hydro-Quebec subscribers. During a press briefing, before the opening of a convention of the Coalition avenir Québec, the Prime Minister recalled that the state-owned company recently raised its electricity consumption reduction target of 8 TWh at 25 TWh.
“It would save us the equivalent of building two dams,” he said. There is a way to watch this. It is not my intention to increase the rates, we could reduce them at certain times. »
On May 4, in a parliamentary committee, the Minister of Economy and Energy Pierre Fitzgibbon returned to the charge with the importance of energy sobriety. He insisted on the impact that reduced tariffs would have on consumption.
“The dishwasher is a good example, if you are able to have a timer on your dishwasher and you consume at two in the morning, you will pay less,” he said.
While Mr. Legault had affirmed in January that this hypothesis was not envisaged in the short term, Mr. Fitzgibbon did not close the door to including provisions on this subject in a bill which would be tabled next fall. .
For his part, Finance Minister Éric Girard said on Saturday that any reduction in rates should be zero for the state, without having a negative impact on the income that Hydro-Québec pays to it.
“These debates are discussed in a context of neutral income, it is to modulate consumption,” he said in a press scrum.
Mr. Girard notably recalled that the government recently capped Hydro-Québec’s rate increases so that they do not exceed 3%. According to him, the Régie de l’énergie should rule on any change to the rate structure.
“Crown corporation revenues are budgeted,” he said. Any modulation of rates must go through the Régie de l’énergie, it must be studied and generally, when we look at developments, it is generally neutral. »