BY ANNETTE KOURI
MONTREAL - The near-total collapse of Quebec's electrical
system has affected over 3 million people in the province.
Although power has been reestablished in most of the Montreal
area, more than 600,000 people remain without heat and lights,
and have no clear idea of when they will get them. Overnight
temperatures have dropped to minus 14 degrees Celsius.
The crisis was provoked by torrents of freezing rain that started January 6. Almost immediately, power failures began on the south shore of the Saint Lawrence River. As the week proceeded working people watched as trees and power lines accumulated up to eight inches of ice.
The great majority of Quebec power lines - strung on wooden poles or huge aluminum pylons - collapsed and snapped, hit by trees or branches that fell from the weight of the ice. The only sections along the heavily populated southern part of the Saint Lawrence Valley that weren't touched by power black-outs were areas wealthy neighborhood such as Westmount, where the power lines are buried underground. Hydro-Quebec says that burying more of the power lines would be much too expensive.
Class lines determined how the crisis affected people. Quebec premier Lucien Bouchard declared that he was forced to find a hotel room because he had no power. But all hotel rooms in Montreal were quickly booked solid by those that could afford this option. Thousands of working people were forced to go to hastily established shelters, many of which are seriously overcrowded and lack essential services, including generators for electrical power. Appeals for help from these centers took on added urgency when Hydro-Quebec announced that power for over 600,000 people would not be reestablished for up to two weeks, or perhaps longer.
Several people in these shelters described their experiences to the Militant. Chantal Arcand, who is staying at converted facilities in the Montreal downtown Convention Center, said, "My 14-year-old son has only eaten a banana and a bagel since yesterday. My baby has had no milk in two days. In the meantime, the IGA will throw away meat and milk. Mayor Bourque came. He said that they would help us to have enough food, enough milk. He gave CAN$35."
Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien and Premier Bouchard were forced to delay their participation in a trade mission to Mexico. Throughout the week they continued to give repeated assurances, but Bouchard finally acknowledged the crisis situation in the shelters January 11. His response was to appeal to those in the region who have power to open their doors to those who don't. He also promised a paltry Can$70 per week in assistance to those who must leave their homes.
The government's main action has been to send in the Army, ostensibly to pick up broken tree branches and help people without power. Several thousand soldiers came immediately, with the goal of eventually sending in up to 8,000 troops into Quebec and thousands more into adjoining regions.
Favorable publicity is welcomed by the Canadian military - still smarting from the disclosure of the torture and abuses carried out by Canadian troops during a "peacekeeping" operation in Somalia in the early 1990s.
Police have been given special powers that allows them to force people to leave their homes. They can also restrict people's movements, forbidding access to certain areas and demanding to see identification.
Phillip Yankey, a sailor who came to the Convention Center shelter because his family had gone 24 hours with no electricity and his children were getting cold, said, "A police officer came to tell us to boil the water before drinking it, but where do I boil it?"
Michel Roy had been at the Plateau Mont-Royal Center since his apartment building burned down January 6. "There were no fire extinguishers in sight, there are no emergency lights, and the batteries were dead in the fire alarm. It's pure and simple negligence."
There have been at least five deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning, as well as several from fires and hypothermia.
Hospitals are stretched to the breaking point. Already seriously understaffed and under equipped from previous budget cuts by the Quebec government, the hospitals now face an increased patient load from bone fractures, hypothermia, and basic needs for shelter and food.
The impact on working farmers is not clear, as information is slowly reported. The emphasis, particularly in the countryside, has been on basic survival. But media reports said 3 million liters (more than 790,000 gallons) of milk had to be thrown away as a result of the storm and power outage. In addition, the decimation of maple forests and orchards will have a devastating impact. It took a week before compensation for the farmers was even discussed, and as of January 13 nothing concrete has been proposed.
Parts of south-eastern Ontario, the northeastern United States, and the Maritime Provinces were also hit by freezing rain and subsequent power cuts. Ontario-Hydro called for volunteers among its workforce in the Toronto area to go to northern Ontario. One of the workers asked why they were not asked to also help in Quebec, and volunteered to go if the call included the entire area that was in crisis. But the help was kept in an Ontario framework.
Throughout the crisis many factories in the larger Montreal region have had electricity. At the factory where this reporter works, one worker suggested that the factory should shut down. He noted that many workers lacked power and had kids to take care of, as well as the fact that it was getting more and more dangerous to get to and from work. His boss answered, "There's no way production will be shut down."
At Samuel and Sons in Laval the union insisted that "floating" paid time off could be used by those workers needing the time.
Joe Young contributed to this article. Annette Kouri and Joe Young are members of the United Steelworkers of America in Montreal.