Energy reform: Christine Fréchette takes to the stage

On Tuesday, Hydro-Quebec's President and CEO, Michael Sabia, and the Minister of the Economy and Energy, Christine Fréchette, reiterated their assurances that residential rate increases will be limited to at least three per cent until 2026.

In the morning, the new minister launched specific consultations on Bill 69, a major energy reform that she inherited from resigning minister Pierre Fitzgibbon.

At a press scrum at the National Assembly before the start of the consultations, Sabia refused to say how much a measure in the bill designed to compensate Hydro-Quebec for the loss of revenue resulting from the three per cent rate freeze would cost.

He did confirm, however, that the industrial and commercial sectors would be paying between four and five per cent more for their electricity in the years to come.

In his presentation to the MNAs, Sabia suggested that the government was dragging its feet on the issue of reconciliation with the First Nations.

"The Quebec government needs to significantly speed up the process of reconciliation with Indigenous communities. This is fundamental and non-negotiable," he said.

"The government's paternalistic and frankly colonialist approvals of every agreement between Hydro-Quebec and the Indigenous communities must come to an end," he added.

-This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on Sept. 10, 2024.