Hydro-Quebec says it hopes to reconnect power today to more than 50,000 customers who have been without electricity since last week’s deadly ice storm, but the utility admits some outages will not be resolved before Tuesday.
Regis Tellier, Hydro-Quebec’s vice-president of operations and maintenance, says around 114,000 clients remain without power, including approximately 80,000 in Montreal.
He told reporters the utility has restored power to over 90 per cent of the more than one million customers who lost power after Wednesday’s ice storm and plans to reach 95 per cent today.
He says the vast majority will have power back on Monday, but some complex cases may not be resolved until Tuesday.
He says 1,500 hydro workers are on the ground but most of the remaining outages are small, affecting only a handful of people.
The province has announced some grocery stores can remain open on Easter Sunday — a statutory holiday — to help residents running low on food after the blackout, which has been linked to three deaths.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published on April 9, 2023.
