West Island power outages: MNA says Hydro Quebec open to holding information sessions to discuss the problem

After a myriad of complaints about power failures in Montreal's West Island, a meeting was held between the area's MNAs and Hydro-Quebec.

Greg Kelley, the Liberal MNA for Jacques-Cartier, says the issue isn't exclusive to the West Island, but the area is experiencing repeated outages – and he's been hearing from frustrated residents in his riding.

"They just lose power whenever the wind blows, is what they would write to me," Kelley said.

It's one of the reasons he and Pointe-Claire Mayor Tim Thomas wrote a letter to Hydro-Quebec CEO and President Michael Sabia to request a meeting.

"This really came about after the last ice storm last spring," said Kelley. "People in my riding lost power for a couple of days, and they really wanted to know from Hydro what's going on with the network?"

The meeting was held Friday morning with a Hydro-Quebec representative for the Island of Montreal and Liberal MNAs Enrico Ciccone, Monsef Derraji and Brigitte Garceau, along with Kelley.

The MNAs would like to see a series of public information sessions across the West Island where experts from Hydro-Quebec would take questions, explain what improvements will be made to the grid, and respond to calls to possibly bury power lines in some areas.

• West Island mayors plan to pressure Hydro-Quebec to bury power lines

Hydro-Quebec is open to the idea of public information sessions after Friday's meeting, according to Kelley.

"I'm very encouraged by their openness," he said.

In a statement to CTV News, the public utility said the meeting was "well-received."

"Hydro-Québec agrees that the quality of service and our communications with customers must be improved…We agreed to maintain our collaboration and pursue discussions. In addition, we reassured them that better informing our customers is a priority and that we would be taking action to this effect," the statement read.

The statement added that 2023 was a particularly difficult year for Montreal, partly because of the effects of the spring ice storm and the summer forest fires elsewhere in the province.

It also said part of Hydro-Quebec's action plan is to spend up to $50 billion dollars between now and 2035 to make the power grid more durable over the long term.