Hydro-Québec runs amok

Back in the spring, Natural Resources Minister Guy Chevrette wrote a lengthy op-ed article in Le Devoir promising to hold a broad-based public consultation on the province's energy future in the fall. But as winter approaches, there's no sign of consultation to be found.

That's why, according to Tom Holzinger of the Coalition contre la dénationalisation de l'électricité (CCDE), activists have begun circumventing the provincial government. At a press conference last Tuesday, the CCDE announced that they had sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in the United States, asking them to deny Hydro-Québec's request for energy marketer status in the U.S. "After that there's the courts, and the federal National Energy Board," Holzinger says. >> Holzinger notes that the CCDE would also appeal to Quebec's new Régie de l'énergie, except that Quebec City is not allowing them to address electricity right now. "They led us to believe that the Régie would regulate electricity, but they seem to have changed their minds. Right now they're making changes by cabinet decree. Often there's not even a press release. We don't know what's going on until we get the government Gazette a day later and are left to figure it out." >> The CCDE is also starting the public consultation process itself, by co-sponsoring a full-day conference on the future of electricity in Quebec. The conference will take place Sunday, November 16, at UQAM, 1255 St-Denis, Room A-2680, starting at 10 a.m. Cost: $5. Info: 866-7407. --Philip Preville