Electricity sold off to foreign multinationals, excessive privatization of the energy sector: with its Bill 69, the Legault government is casting a dark cloud over Hydro-Québec that could mark “a clear decline for Quebec society,” according to workers at the state-owned company.
The brief from the Syndicat des spécialisé et professionnels d’Hydro-Québec (SSPHQ) is intended to be an electroshock for the Minister of Economy and Energy, Christine Fréchette. Over 27 pages, the organization, which represents some 5,000 employees of the Crown corporation — experts in procurement, forestry, finance and the environment, for example — sharply criticizes the bill “ensuring responsible governance of energy resources.”
“Many of the provisions of Bill 69 constitute a frontal attack on the public nature of our energy,” it reads.
Bequeathed to Mme Fréchette by the resigning minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, the legislative text in question provides for a range of measures that will change the face of energy management in Quebec. Upon reading it, the SSPHQ noted a major bone of contention: the possibility for private electricity producers to distribute their energy surpluses.
Hydro-Québec, we all paid for it. What we are talking about here is a dispossession of our assets for the benefit of private contractors.
Included in the bill last spring, this provision would allow companies like TES Canada, which plans to build a “green” hydrogen production plant powered by its wind turbines near Shawinigan, to sell its own energy to a neighbour. It is up to the minister in office to approve or not these projects.
“The bill gives the minister exceptional powers and facilitates in an unprecedented way the privatization of the production and distribution of electricity in Quebec,” the union maintains in its brief.
“The biggest danger is a liberalization of the Quebec energy system,” adds the union’s president, Gilles Cazade, in an interview with The Duty. “Hydro-Québec, we all paid for it. What we are talking about here is a dispossession of our assets for the benefit of private entrepreneurs.”
“Clear decline”
In its brief, the SSPHQ states that “the adoption of the bill in its current form would constitute a clear step backwards for Quebec society” and “betray[ait] the legacy of René Lévesque and Adélard Godbout”.
However, it is not too late to withdraw the provisions of the law that open the door to the private sector, the document indicates, in which it is also recommended to “nationalize electricity production of all kinds” and to “entrust the management of the Integrated Energy Resources Management Plan [PGIRE] […] to Hydro-Quebec”.
Provided for in the bill, the PGIRE would take the form of a roadmap towards the energy transition signed by the Minister of Energy every six years, with a horizon of 25 years. According to the SSPHQ, entrusting its management to the state-owned company would prevent “our world-renowned renewable energy [soit vendue] at low prices to large multinational companies.
“In danger”
In interview with The Dutythe secretary general of the SSPHQ, Sonia Moore, does not beat around the bush. By moving forward with the bill as it was written, the Legault government would “definitively” put Hydro-Québec “in danger.”
The SSPHQ was not invited to testify before a parliamentary committee this week, at a time when Minister Fréchette is hearing from a host of groups as part of the special consultation phase. Several members of the union office showed up in parliament in the last few days to get their message across, but “the government is missing a real opportunity for consultation,” laments Gilles Cazade.
Once the special consultation stage is over, Minister Fréchette will have the opportunity to put her stamp on Bill 69 during the clause-by-clause study of the text. The timing of this crucial stage, where amendments may be made to the provisions signed by Fitzgibbon, has not been chosen.