Dear Editor,
In regards to J.D. Potie’s article on the subject matter, in the Aug. 7 edition of THE EQUITY, I would like to state that I am in complete agreement with the comments of . . .
Mr. Dave Gillespie and Mayor Sunstrum.
After suffering an inordinate amount of outages in 2015 and 2016, I was, as a councillor of L’isle-aux-Allumettes, one of the municipal representatives on the committee formed to address this issue. I attended the same meeting in Campbell’s Bay that Gillespie referenced in the article. There were senior regional representatives from Hydro Quebec present as well as Mr. André Fortin and representatives from other organizations.
Our concerns and dissatisfaction with the services provided by Hydro Quebec were stated loud and clear. Following this meeting, as Gillespie points out, Hydro Quebec did some work such as cutting trees and branches near power lines, upgrading equipment, etc., and services did improve for a while. However, we are now experiencing as many, if not more outages than we faced prior to this meeting.
Later in the year, Mayor Sunstrum and I attended a meeting in Gatineau with the same regional representatives from Hydro Quebec, where we again voiced our concerns. Hydro Quebec informed us of the work they had done and future work planned for our area which would improve services. I specifically asked if they could provide us with a letter outlining the work that had been done and the future work planned on a semi-annual or annual basis. We could then share this information with our ratepayers. They committed to doing so. Later on, during a tele-conference call with Hydro Quebec representatives, I reminded them of their commitment to provide this information. Again, they reassured me that this would not be a problem. Here we are in 2019, and to my knowledge, no such information letter has been provide to our municipality.
I am certainly no expert on the workings of power supply, cause of outages, etc., and as Gillespie states, it is understandable that during major storms, we may lose power. However, I cannot understand why these power outages occur so frequently and regularly. As a lay person, I can only assume that because of our small rural population, we are not considered important enough for Hydro Quebec to fix this issue for once and for all. Is it aging equipment, some fault in the grid system, or just inattention to tree and shrub trimming? Are we to be content with paying our hydro bills regularly while receiving services on an intermittent basis? I submitted letters on this topic in 2016 which were printed by our local newspapers. If I recall, other than Gillespie, no one else chose to voice their opinions publicly.
I would urge all residents affected by this negligence on the part of Hydro Quebec to write to the local newspapers, Hydro Quebec, provincial elected officials and use social media to express their concerns and dissatisfaction with this unacceptable level of service.
Roger Lavoie
Councillor, L’isle-aux-Allumettes
