François Legault’s government has confirmed that the planned increase in residential electricity rates will stay at three per cent, as opposed to the 3.6 per cent proposed by the Régie de l’énergie.
The council of ministers adopted the decree on Wednesday, with Economy, Innovation and Energy Minister Christine Fréchette suggesting industrial and commercial customers may have to compensate for the difference.
Contrarily, a spokesperson for the minister later clarified that there will “not necessarily” be an increase for the commercial and industrial sectors.
In a decision handed down on March 6, the Régie de l’énergie ruled in favour of a 3.6 per cent increase as of April 1, notably to cover the costs required to deliver electricity services.
The next day, Legault stated that this was out of the question.
“The government respects its commitments,” said Fréchette in a press scrum after a cabinet meeting on Wednesday afternoon.
The Coalition Avenir Québec (CAQ) government had previously committed to limiting electricity rate increases to three per cent.
At the time, Fréchette acknowledged that the industrial and commercial sectors may have to absorb a higher increase to compensate for Hydro-Quebec’s 0.6 per cent loss in revenue.
“It will be a very slight increase,” she assured, without specifying how much it could be. “I don’t have the final calculations, but it will be distributed among the different customer groups.”
However, the minister’s press secretary later said that Hydro-Quebec had already decided “to assume the difference” of 0.6 per cent from the Crown corporation’s dividend to the government.
“It’s a decrease in the provisioned dividend,” she wrote in a text message. “So, it doesn’t necessarily mean an increase for commercial and industrial [customers.]”
In early March, the Régie had determined that “rate increases that do not reflect Hydro-Quebec’s required revenue growth are arbitrary and do not allow Hydro-Quebec to set fair and reasonable rates.”
It set the increases to take effect on April 1 at 3.6 per cent for residential customers, 3.6 per cent for commercial and institutional customers and 1.7 per cent for large-power industrial customers under Rate L.
Hydro-Quebec had proposed a three per cent increase for residential customers, in line with the government, but increases of 3.9 per cent for commercial and 3.3 per cent for industrial customers.
Hydro-Quebec forecasts an estimated shortfall of $60 million in 2025 with a cap.
-- This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 27, 2024.
