A Tale of Two Provinces

In Quebec, the Haute-Côte-Nord regional municipality is looking to partner with forestry company Kruger to develop the regions’s significant wind energy potential.

In response, Quebec’s Natural Resources Minister, Pierre Corbeil, said:

“When this group made its presentation to government of its proposal, I was very clear and definitive with the partnership representatives that we are in the process of developing our provincial energy plan and, obviously, the development of wind projects would be a key element of the plan. Therefore, government was not going to make any decision regarding these projects until that process is complete.”

Minister Corbeil said there is an increasing level of interest in developing wind projects in this province due to the fact that Quebec has some of the best sites in North America for wind energy.

“The proposal from Kruger and the MRC Haute-Côte-Nord is just one of many that government has received,” said Minister Corbeil. “Wind is becoming an emerging resource and our responsibility as a government is to ensure that this resource is developed in a way that maximizes benefits for the people of the province. We are not going to give away 1,000 megawatts of power until we understand what opportunities there are for this province. This is a significant policy matter for this government, and we will simply not be pressed into making an inappropriate decision.”

Minister Corbeil reiterated that government sees the potential of Hydro-Québec developing this project and maximizing returns to the people of the province.

“You cannot help but question whether this is the kind of company we want to be doing business with.”

Hydro-Québec CEO Thierry Vandal also took exception to the comments, particularly those that questioned the capability and expertise of Hydro.

“Today, Hydro-Québec successfully operates over 165TWh of generation.” said Mr. Vandal. “We have over 50 years in the generation and transmission business. Although we understand the drivers of a privately-owned company like Kruger attempting to maximize returns to outside, private shareholders, we are more than capable of pursuing this type of development for the full benefit of the province.

“Our costs and reliability are competitive with the rest of the country and better than most areas, as a result of this company’s continual attention to performance and reliability,” said Mr. Vandal. “We have over 11,000 dedicated, high-performing Quebecers who are committed to building, operating and maintaining the largest electrical utility in the country for the benefits of our fellow Quebecers”

The entire indented text is made up.

Well, sorta.