2023-07-20 04:00:00
A citizen of Lanaudière spent $36,000 a year ago to have his house connected by Hydro-Québec, but not a single meter of wire has yet been laid by the government corporation.
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“I just ask them for a start date for the work. When are they going to assign a team? They are not even able to answer me, ”laments Isaac Roy, who has been waiting since January 2022 for Hydro to connect his residence.
In the summer of 2022, Isaac Roy built his first house in the municipality of Saint-Damien, in Lanaudière. He has now lived there for more than six months. Its energy comes from a generator and two solar panels, which costs it more than if it were served by Hydro-Québec.
“With the panels, I run my lights and charge my computer. This is to help me out in the meantime. But the generator is costing me a small fortune. It’s $100 per week minimum, in the summer. I roll it as little as possible, I limit myself to the essentials,” he says.
Fees of $36,000
Shortly after Mr. Roy sent his request, Hydro demanded that he pay all the costs for the extension of the network (500 m of lines to be installed). The 24-year-old therefore paid them the $36,000 claimed. “It’s been a year. I could have earned interest on this sum, but there, it is they who are making interest on it, ”he said. As of today, Hydro-Québec has not yet laid a wire. “There is nothing done, not a single meter. I saw trucks coming, but no one worked.
The connection work was to be completed on October 4, 2022. However, 18 months after the opening of the file, Isaac Roy is still waiting. “Since then, Hydro has given me five different dates. The last was July 7, but no one came. Now, the new official date is August 18, but that doesn’t mean anything anymore…”
Like a large number of Hydro customers, Mr. Roy was told by the Crown corporation that this is an “exceptional” situation and that others like him are in the same boat. “A girl at Hydro told me that we were within the normal time frame, ie 18 to 24 months for connections,” he underlines.
Hydro-Québec defends itself
“This is a major network construction site that has nothing to do with a simple connection to our network, when it passes near the residence”, specifies Maxence Huard-Lefebvre, of Hydro -Quebec.
Also, the client’s house is located in a park of poles not belonging to Hydro, but rather to Bell, points out Mr. Huard-Lefebvre. It was Bell who carried out the planting work (more than a dozen poles had to be planted), which was completed in May 2023.
“Finally, for the context, the workload we currently have is 50% higher than normal, not to mention the extreme weather events that have mobilized our teams on several occasions in recent months. In these situations, restoring power becomes our priority,” added the Hydro-Québec spokesperson.
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