A young couple from Saint-Donat finds Hydro-Québec’s service “disgusting” for making them wait for years even though they still have no electricity. The organizers are also starting to lose patience.
• Also read: For François Legault, the construction of new dams seems essential
Simon Plourde and his partner are becoming impatient. They can’t wait to move into their family home on the Garceau mountain in Saint-Donat in Lanaudière. But if Hydro pushes back the grid expansion date further, they will have to accept spending the winter in the cold.
Although the couple’s home is 350 meters from the Hydro-Québec line, their connection is still slow despite the developer submitting the application on March 10, 2021.
“We now have four completed apartments in the housing project, including one that accommodates a family with children. And we’re all waiting to join. Yesterday it was minus one degree here in Saint-Donat,” says Simon Plourde, a 33-year-old computer scientist.
Are you having service issues with Hydro-Québec?
Write to me
Not enough power
After their homes were built, the four owners had to pay $18,000 last May to have an electrician pull a temporary conduit to prevent damage. However, they have to share an output of 200 amps between four people, which is completely inadequate given the coming temperatures.
“We all don’t have enough energy to function well. When you start heating, our oven stops working… Our general rule is to heat one heating element at a time. Always remember that when you turn on the oven you must also turn off the heating, otherwise you will not be able to use the hairdryer, for example.”
Believing they would be connected in time, the couple began building their home in September 2022. But they were a little overconfident and completing the work proved complicated. “We lived in Montreal, so I had to leave at 4 a.m. to heat the house because the plumber or electrician wanted to come and work,” says Simon Plourde.
Impatient promoters
Hydro-Québec finally planted poles at the end of September. “But here, too, our project sponsor had to establish contacts with Hydro in order to avoid the bureaucracy,” says Simon Plourde. But the couple is still not together. “We just found out there would be two to three weeks of work and were told we would ‘probably’ be connected before December,” he said.
Even though the connection application was submitted in March 2021, Hydro-Québec believes that the deadline should be calculated differently. “We are not talking about a period of two and a half years, but we have to take into account the date on which the project was confirmed by the project executing agency, i.e. February 2022. So we are talking about about twenty months.” The work will be completed around mid-November,” assures Maxence Huard-Lefebvre of Hydro-Québec.
In Hydro-Québec’s defense, it can be said that certain delays in the file are not attributable to it, such as the easement applications that the developer had to submit to Bell, which was also late in the file. According to Hydro-Québec, the delays are also due to the setting of masts that had to be drilled.
Stéphanie Dionne with kind permission
“But it’s the whole process that doesn’t make sense. There are delays at all stages and when you call Hydro they don’t seem to care,” complains Stéphanie Dionne, real estate developer and real estate agent in Saint-Donat. “I have several developments and every single one is a mess. There are constant delays,” she said.
The young woman points out that developers like her have to make large upfront payments to Hydro for connections. “In this case the line cost us $100,000. We have been paying this in advance for a year. I could have done a lot of other things with that money.”
Can you share information about this story?
Write to us or call us directly at 1 800-63SCOOP.