Quebec maple syrup producers are starting to get tired of having trouble getting electricity for their investment projects, which would come second to the battery industry factories run by foreigners, according to them.
“We forget our regions,” says Alan Bryson, owner of the 40,000-tap O’Maple Érablière, in Notre-Dame-de-la-Merci, near Saint-Donat, in a calm voice.
“We make requests, and these are two-year deadlines for simple small installations,” denounces Martin Pilette, owner of Érablières Des Monts, with 32,000 taps.
“We are 50 kilometers from Montreal and we have difficulty getting direct current because the lines are overloaded,” he maintains.
Losses in thousands of dollars
At his side, Normand Urbain, a Lanaudière syrup producer with 8,500 taps, adds a layer.
“Is it normal for people to wait, not days, weeks, months, but years before being connected to maple syrup production?” he asks himself.
At Newspaper, he also deplores the network which often fails at the worst moment. “There are producers who have had disconnections six, seven or even eight times. We are struggling to make ends meet. We lose several thousand dollars,” he whispers.
Thursday, on the sidelines of a meeting of biofood policy partners, at the Centrexpo Cogeco Drummondville, tempers heated up at the end of the Annual General Meeting (AGM) of maple producers, which was held in the next room.
Lack of vision
Exasperated producers took the microphone to openly criticize Hydro-Québec and the current government for putting them after major industrial projects, according to them.
In interview at Newspaper afterwards, three maple syrup producers had a lot to say.
“It’s a question of vision. How can we develop electrification without thinking about all regions?” asked Alan Bryson, from Érablière O’Maple.
Because according to Martin Pilette, from Érablières Des Monts, “there are a thousand and one options” for producers who want to grow their SMEs.
“The energy will have to stay here so that those with businesses that built Quebec can at least benefit from having power everywhere in our countryside,” he complains.
“The network is overloaded. We don’t know when it will be reliable. Meanwhile, we sell electricity in the United States, we have agreements with Newfoundland and battery factories,” says Normand Urbain, a producer from Lanaudière.
He says he spent sugar time glued to his cell phone screen to monitor the weather because he was afraid the poles would fall like flies.
“Let’s stop giving away our resources. Let’s bring Quebec energy to encourage our flagships of the maple industry. We have had an 8% increase in our international sales over the past 15 years. If I were prime minister, I would focus on that,” he concludes.
HIGHLIGHTS
After their AGM, maple producers announced that they had harvested an “absolute record” 239 million pounds of maple syrup this year, worth nearly $750 million.
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