With this series, the editorial team goes back to the sources of a Quebec model that is struggling in the hope of rekindling its first sparks, those that allowed our nation to distinguish itself from others. Today: the nationalization of electricity.
The purpose was explicit. The determination, unwavering. “The era of economic colonialism is over in Quebec. Now is the time for us to be masters in our own house!” chanted Quebec Premier Jean Lesage in 1962, victorious, following an early election called to secure the mandate to nationalize electricity.
His Liberal government thus followed in the footsteps of that of Adélard Godbout, by carrying out this nationalization begun twenty years earlier, but restricted to the Montreal region. Quebecers would now take full control, on the entire scale of Quebec, of their economic and energy destiny.
The Minister of Water Resources (later Minister of Natural Resources), a young René Lévesque, a Liberal at the time, had persuaded his government to embark on this vast project that would lay the foundations for building a modern Quebec. All that remained was to convince the population. Which René Lévesque did. “This is truly the key to our economy, for at least the next 20, 25 years,” he would hammer home throughout the election campaign. The electorate proved him right. History did too.
Sixty years later, Hydro-Québec sells its hydroelectricity throughout the northeastern part of North America. But above all, the growth of the Crown corporation has enabled, from its very beginnings, the hiring of thousands of French Canadians—previously shunned by private companies owned by English—and even their advancement to the highest levels, with work now being done in the language of Félix Leclerc. It is a whole blossoming of Quebec society that accompanies this economic development of Quebec, by and for Quebecers.
A liberation that was combined with that of indigenous communities, also demanding the equity and respect that had been denied them for too long. Wounded by the deep scars of decades of construction and exploitation of their lands without consultation, the First Nations are only asking to also be masters of their development.
The signing of the James Bay Agreement will lay a very first stone in the fragile, and still unfinished, edifice of this economic reconciliation, while denying the Cree rights to part of their territory. The Peace of the Braves will set a new milestone in this national emancipation, while still leaving too many other nations speechless on this subject. The political awakening of governments, catalyzed by the evolution of jurisprudence, fortunately ends up sketching the roadmap for a new egalitarian relationship. That of decision-making and financial equity.
In less than a year at the head of Hydro-Québec, Michael Sabia, along with François Legault’s CAQ government, has initialed partnerships with the Innu of Pessamit and Unamen Shipu, on the North Shore, as well as with the Innu of Mashteuiatsh and the Attikameks of Wemotaci, in Lac-Saint-Jean. A new postcolonialist era full of hope. The responsibility for its success will now fall to Quebec and its Crown corporation.
Because the near future holds enormous challenges for Hydro-Québec. Decarbonization and the explosion of energy needs in Quebec society, amplified by the supply of the future battery sector, will require nothing less than doubling electricity production within 25 years. The path of dialogue and full collaboration with indigenous peoples will trace the only possible route to new energy sources. Will they be wind, nuclear, green hydrogen? The debate will have to take place, fully and openly. And above all, who will own them?
The opening to private companies, in the bill tabled in June by the Minister of Economy and Energy, Pierre Fitzgibbon, remains limited (resale can only be made to adjacent consumers), but it raises unknowns for the future.
Existing resources are already lacking to meet the demands of new industrial projects, much to the chagrin of the super-minister who candidly admitted last year how much he thinks of the private sector at the expense of the State, at least for wind power. But does privatization also mean commercial interests, price fluctuations or cannibalization of a limited workforce? The mad rush towards this production of substantial quantities of electricity must avoid this, while preserving the precious social, economic and national heritage of René Lévesque and Jean Lesage.
The nationalist legacy that François Legault hopes to leave is part of this regeneration of Hydro-Québec into a super producer of clean and renewable energy. A goal that is legitimate, but which must not deny the roots that have seen Hydro-Québec grow into a fully Quebec flagship.