BY JOE YOUNG
MONTREAL - The crisis provoked by the ice storm that hit Quebec in early January continues. As of January 25 there were still more than 110,000 homes without electricity. At least 22 deaths have been attributed to the consequences of the massive loss of electrical power, which at one point affected 3 million people.

Claiming the crisis demanded urgent measures, the Quebec Provincial Government, headed by Premier Lucien Bouchard, passed laws allowing Hydro-Quebec practically unheard of powers to develop its electrical lines. Existing laws on the environment and the control of agricultural land are shelved by the new decrees, which were adopted in Cabinet and never discussed in Quebec's National Assembly.

Following a meeting with Hydro-Quebec president Andre Caille, Laurent Pellerin, president of the Agricultural Producers Union, said, "It is no longer a question of a process of public meetings through the Office of Public Audiences on the Environment [BAPE] and the Agricultural Land Protection Commission [CPTA]." The BAPE had earlier refused Hydro-Quebec permission to run an aerial line between power stations in Duvernay and Anjou, demanding that the line be run underground instead, which is safer but more costly and time consuming to set up. Now Hydro-Quebec will be allowed build the aerial line.

In the 1960s ruling rich in Quebec decided to heavily develop and promote the use of hydroelectric power as a major source of revenue. In 1962 almost all remaining private hydroelectric companies were nationalized and a massive program of development of hydroelectric dams was launched. By 1996 electricity accounted for 41 percent of all of Quebec's energy consumption, compared with an average of 23.8 percent for all provinces in Canada, according to Statistics Canada. Almost 80 percent of all residences in Quebec use electric heat.

For more than three decades the reliability of the aerial power lines that carry most of this electricity has been an issue. Hydro-Quebec's network is dependent on above ground pylons and wooden polls. This is what made it so vulnerable to ice buildup on the lines and polls and from falling branches.

The January 14 issue of La Presse, a major French-language daily in Montreal, referred to an editorial they published after a previous ice storm in 1961 which advocated the burying of cables. That editorial asked, "Shouldn't the burying of the lines be one of the first items in a unemployment works program since so many workers are looking for work right now?"

At the Montreal Militant Labor Forum January 16, David Johnston, a Hydro-Ontario worker who came to Quebec to help out in the wake of the storm, explained that burying the electrical lines would be much safer. In his opinion the issue is not cost but the health and welfare of working people.

Following the storm, the Quebec government called on the Canadian army to help in "maintaining order," clearing away broken branches, and other tasks. More than 9,000 soldiers have been deployed in Quebec. At the provincial government's request, soldiers were given the power of police agents. La Presse reported January 15 that 3,000 soldiers in the Montérégie, the region hardest hit by the crisis, were going door to door, with the power to remove people from their homes by force.

The federal government has seized upon the opportunity to use troops in the streets of Quebec in its efforts to refurbish the image of the Canadian army. The Toronto Star on January 14 quoted Capt. Mario Couture, a spokesperson of the army's Quebec headquarters, saying "It's a good change from all the problems we had and the bad publicity." Couture was referring to the murders of several civilians committed by the Canadian army in Somalia in 1993.

The aid offered by the different levels of government is inadequate. The Quebec government has offered Can$70 (US$48) a week per person in the hardest hit areas, with a number of restrictions on receiving even this sum. The federal government has made available Can$50 million to Quebec. The government has also set up a repair and reconstruction program that it says will temporarily employ between 8,000 - 10,000 jobless workers in Ontario, Quebec, and New Brunswick.

The Federal Minister of Agriculture, Lyle Vanclief has refused to give clear answers on how farmers will be aided. In the region of Saint-Hyacinthe alone, some 5,500 of 6,500 farmers have been without electricity. There have been major losses of livestock and fruit and maple trees.

At the Militant Labor Forum January 16, Annette Kouri, a member of the United Steelworkers of America (USWA) and the Communist League, said the unions should fight for "full compensation for all those who have been affected by the crisis. We need to demand a massive public works program at union wages to repair the damage and bury the electrical lines. And we need to call for the return of the army to the barracks."

Joe Young is a member of USWA Local 7625.  
 
 
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