HQ plays its game within the game

We have always known that Hydro-Québec is a state within a state.

Look at the energy the state corporation spends on hiding the salaries of its 2,259 executives.

But in recent days, we have the impression that – to paraphrase Martin Saint-Louis – Hydro-Québec is playing its “game” within the “game” of the government.

Archive photo, QMI Agency

Be generous with others

The government is saying that everything in Quebec should be prioritized?

Hydro grants large power blocks to foreign multinationals (Swedish Northvolt, South Korean Volta Solutions, American companies Ford and Vantage, German Duravit and French Air Liquide), but according to a survey of 114 businesses here, 35% of Quebec businesses have enough to meet their current needs. have no power.

Two months ago, Super Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon himself confirmed in front of 700 businessmen gathered at the Palais des Congres that dozens of industrial projects could not be carried out due to power shortages.

We were even invited to shower with cold water to save electricity!

Vampirize our SMEs?

When he was in opposition, Mr. Legault promised that if elected, his government would be the most transparent in Quebec history, remember?

However, in December 2023, we learned that Hydro-Québec signed 10 confidential agreements with the companies.

And as my colleague Sylvain Larocque revealed on Monday, some Hydro-Québec subsidiaries are so secretive that there is no public information about them!

Hydro-Québec – by refusing to demonstrate transparency – is not only playing its “game” within the government's “game”, but the government, with its battery sector, is playing a “game” to the detriment of the “game” of Quebec companies. Trying to win!

Indeed, we know that Mr. Legault presents himself as a nationalist. However, according to Frédéric Laurin, professor of economics at the School of Management of the University of Quebec in Trois-Rivières, the battery sector project he is pushing will instead benefit foreign multinationals rather than helping Quebec businesses.

“Our SMEs, already reeling from lack of workers, will have foreign multinationals pull the rug out from under them with billions of dollars of public funding,” said Mr. Fortin told journalist Francis Hallin in December 2023.

Thanks to the generous subsidies we provide them, these multinational companies can destroy local SMEs by paying their employees salaries that our companies cannot pay.

“The labor shortage caused by the battery factories will be worse than the recession…”, said the UQTR professor.

• Listen to the Martino – Dutrizac meeting between Benoit Dutrizac and Richard Martino QUB :

This is urgent!

For a while, not a day goes by without talking about Hydro-Québec.

One day, we will almost nationalize the wind energy sector.

The next day, we open the door to nuclear power or electricity sale privatization.

The state corporation keeps announcing projects – projects that are never publicly discussed.

Everything happens so quickly that we don't have time to follow the “game”.

Let's hope that all these projects will help make Quebec better.

And it's not… “Game Over”!