The CEO of Hydro-Québec, Sophie Brochu, said she was in position to stay last fall, during an interview with Paul Arcand. The one who has just announced her surprise resignation, however, mentioned the reasons that could push her to leave.
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• Read also: Hydro-Quebec CEO Sophie Brochu resigns
When the host of 98.5 FM had mentioned rumors of a departure in the spring, the CEO had denied his intention to leave office and was planning for the future.
“Me, what motivates me is what we see in front and the governance framework. As long as the governance framework within the government, within Hydro-Québec, is healthy and we are able to assert the major prerogatives of the need for the energy system, I will be there,” declared Ms.me Booklet on October 12.
“It is certain that if, for one reason or another, this framework was different and I saw that we were putting the evolution of the energy system at risk, I would have serious conversations with my shareholder”, she added about the Quebec government.
The important thing for a CEO, she insisted, was to be in “symbiosis” with the shareholder on the vision, particularly in terms of industrial development.
A little earlier in the interview, Sophie Brochu had mentioned her fear of seeing Quebec become the “one-dollar store” of electricity. Having become Minister of Economy and Energy at the same time, Pierre Fitzgibbon has since announced his intention to use hydroelectricity to attract new investments.
No chicanery
Mardi, Mme Brochu was stingy with details on the reasons for his departure next April, exactly three years after his appointment, one of the shortest terms since the 1970s.
Both on the side of Hydro-Québec and the Legault government, it is argued that the ex-boss of Énergir had come as reinforcements in the heart of the pandemic.
A source in Quebec also affirms that the supposed disagreements between Mme Brochu and Minister Fitzgibbon come from a media “bloat”. “The two get along well, we are assured. We have never gone against Hydro-Québec’s strategic plan. There is no acrimony.”
It is too early to know who could replace Mme Brochu in this key position for the ambitions of the Legault government.
In the press release announcing the upcoming departure of the CEO, Hydro-Quebec ensures that its board of directors had already provided names to ensure the succession and will be able to provide a list of candidates and candidates to the government.
Departure “very worrying”
For Québec solidaire, this sudden resignation of the CEO of Hydro-Québec is “very worrying”. His deputy Haroun Bouazzi stresses that Mme Brochu “was worried about the recent choices of the Legault government which risked making Quebec the “Dollarama” of electricity for large companies, with the consequence that citizens pay the bill on arrival”.
“Will Mr. Fitzgibbon benefit from the departure of Mr.me Brochu to install a management that is loyal to him, as we have seen done at Investissement Québec? “, he asks.
The Liberal Party of Quebec, for its part, demanded that the appointment of the next CEO of Hydro-Quebec be the subject of transparency and a “national dialogue”.