Last month, the president and chief executive officer of Hydro-Québec, Sophie Brochu, affirmed, in the pages of The Press, that we had to question ourselves on the relevance of selling our electricity at a low price: “We don’t want to stay in the paradigm of “we don’t sell at a high price”. Knowing that our marginal supply costs are much greater than our historical costs, then we will not dig a financial hole for life. »
Yet this is what is currently happening in agriculture under the impetus of the Greenhouse Growth Strategy in Quebec led by the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAPAQ) since 2020. While a large proportion of greenhouse producers already benefit from a preferential rate of 5.59¢/kWh, megacomplexes that put forward investments of $3M or more obtain an additional 40% discount, reducing the cost of electricity they consume at about 3.35¢/kWh. Added to this are substantial subsidies for the financing of infrastructure. The main characteristic of these farms is to operate year-round, thanks to the artificial lighting allowed by these tariffs.
A greenhouse production model that results in energy consumption, from all sources combined, many times higher than operations that operate from March to October. Is it justified?
How can our government refuse to see this flagrant inconsistency which consists in massively supporting with subsidies a production model whose peak energy consumption coincides with the peak of electricity demand at Hydro-Québec? And all the more so, I find it hard to see the CEO of Hydro-Quebec responding cheerfully to this order, taking into account the arguments that the latter invoked in the article mentioned above.
What’s more, it should be remembered that Hydro-Québec has, in its development plans of recent years, put forward the priority of energy saving measures in relation to the expansion of its fleet of production equipment. All the more so when it comes to meeting demand during the winter peak period when Hydro-Québec favors purchasing electricity from neighboring networks, even at high prices, compared to the even more exorbitant cost of electricity. electricity that would be produced by new power stations. During these critical periods, reselling this electricity at a discount is nonsense. And this, regardless of the option chosen, purchase or production.
Food autonomy?
However, projects are multiplying, boosted by cheap energy, according to a questionable if not totally biased vision of food self-sufficiency. This development continues in indifference or in willful blindness, despite the warnings of an organization mandated by the MAPAQ itself.
Indeed, in December 2020, the Center universitaire de recherche en analyze des organizations (CIRANO) produced, at the request of MAPAQ, a summary report on possible solutions and levers for action to be favored to respond to the challenges with which Quebec’s agri-food sector must come to terms, particularly that of food self-sufficiency, and to revive the economy.
Here is a passage that clearly expresses the reservations that should be taken into consideration given the excessive amount of public funds that this type of development channels. “Focusing solely on Quebec’s supply, without going through a critical and constructive examination of the characteristics of our bio-food system as it is, risks leading to potentially inadequate responses, for example the development of intensive greenhouse production models that , certainly, will offer a few entrepreneurs business opportunities, but will only have a limited collective impact and will increase dependence on imported labour, at least as long as technological solutions are not available at lower costs. not affecting competitiveness. »
It seems that the MAPAQ ignored an expertise that it had itself requested. We can only note that this essential critical attitude that we should demonstrate collectively is currently far from being up to the challenges we are facing.
Feeding needs or markets?
Offering year-round tropical vegetables powered by electricity at a discount is not a sustainable practice from a food self-sufficiency perspective. There are many nutritional options that make it possible to eat even better and more ecologically than by indulging in the subsidized luxury defended by the proponents of this unbridled vision.
A new model of agriculture, both in greenhouses and in the field, is in full swing. The producers who have adopted it aim first of all to supply their community, in accordance with our seasons and with the light available. Environmental concern is at the heart of their approach and is part of a dynamic perspective of land use.
“It is time to reflect on the pricing of electricity consumption by industrial players,” believes the president and CEO of Hydro-Québec, Sophie Brochu.
The Ecological Proximity Agriculture Cooperative (CAPE) has just published a Resilience Manifesto which pleads for more coherent agricultural policies in terms of the environment and food autonomy. An approach that could inspire the reflection that Mr.me Brochu hopes, by extending it to the use of energy in agriculture, and more particularly with regard to a greenhouse model that can be qualified, categorically, as industrial.