Voices are raised over possible cuts at Hydro-Québec in Saguenay

The four prefects of the region and the mayor of Saguenay are demanding a meeting with the management of Hydro-Québec in order to take stock of the future of the telecontrol center located in the district of Chicoutimi.

The union fears that this division will be moved to Varennes or Beauport. In total, 43 jobs would be at stake in the region.

The president of the Conference of Prefects of Saguenay–Lac-Saint-Jean, Louis Ouellet, requested this summit meeting so that elected officials can be reassured.

We want to know what Hydro-Québec’s plans are in our territory. It’s important that we know this.

The subject was briefly discussed last week when the state-owned company presented its energy transition plan to regional representatives. The responses, however, did not completely reassure elected officials.

By email, Hydro-Québec specifies that the new organization desired for the operation of its network will have no impact on the quality of service and recovery during outages. Moreover, the state corporation mentions that the center which orchestrates the restoration of service for the distribution network is not located in the region.

No to centralization

The mayor of Saguenay, Julie Dufour, believes that this reorganization is a bad ideashe says in an interview.

People in the state corporation have good salaries. They contribute to the region. Starting to mobilize towards large centers is not a good ideaadds Ms. Dufour.

Our state company, we hope that it will continue decentralization in the regions.

Remember that the employees’ union representative, Dany Bolduc, has already discussed the matter with the five deputies of the Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ). He is awaiting follow-up from them.

With information from Louis Martineau and Michel Gaudreau