Power Outage in Haut-Pontiac: Financial Losses and Growing Impatience Among Residents
Power Outage in Haut-Pontiac: Financial Losses and Growing Impatience Among Residents
The Prefect of the MRC Pontiac, Jane Toller, says she’s had enough of the power outages in the Upper Pontiac (L’Isle-aux-Allumettes, Chichester, Sheenboro, and Waltham). Another outage occurred last Saturday, prompting her to take action. Jane Toller believes this situation is damaging the reputation of Pontiac.
« Hydro-Québec has a modernization plan for the MRC Pontiac, but that’s for the future, and it will take too long. We can’t afford to wait,» she stated.
However, on May 12, Hydro-Québec announced a solution to address the power outages, with significant investments planned for the coming years. Jane Toller believes this solution is not arriving fast enough. Some residents also feel that Hydro-Québec’s solution is too late and that the impact will be felt for many more years.
Farmer and entrepreneur David Gillespie, who has been tracking power outages for nearly 15 years, says he no longer wants to invest in the industry. He had planned to purchase a greenhouse but decided against the investment, explaining that the unreliability of the power grid would complicate his work and could even damage equipment, as it has for other farmers.
“I was about to make an investment of around a quarter of a million dollars—not just for a greenhouse, but more than that. But with the four or five outages we had in July, I started thinking about the system I would need to put in place, and with the voltage fluctuations, it would have been completely ruined.”
The Prefect of the MRC, Jane Toller, says she hopes to meet with Hydro-Québec’s President and CEO, Claudine Bouchard. David Gillespie also reacted to this intention.
« Good luck… There’s a protocol with them. It has to go through media relations and so on. To get the president herself—that’s something else. »
He would prefer better communication between the various stakeholders, particularly between Hydro-Québec and its customers.
The full (French-language) interview with David Gillespie, a farmer from L’Isle-aux-Allumettes, is available here.