While 14,558 Hydro-Quebec customers were without electricity a week after violent storms affected Quebec and Ontario, the government on Saturday announced the provision of special financial assistance to help service providers. social aid to cover the loss of food suffered as a result of a power outage.
Recipients of social assistance affected by unemployment lasting more than 24 hours are eligible for this assistance of $ 75 per person. The maximum amount for each family is $ 300. It is important to support the weakest people in our societyLabor Minister Jean Boulet said in a press release on Saturday.
If Saturday morning, Hydro-Québec counted 8,900 customers without electricity, new losses were declared in the last hours, Hydro-Québec explained in a press release. RDIGeneviève Chouinard, Hydro-Québec spokeswoman, said that of this number, 3,200 have been without electricity since last weekend.
” The other fallen customers were largely due to plants that weakened during the storm and continued to fall into the power grid. “
Of the 14,558 customers without electricity as of Saturday midnight, the majority (8,849 customers) were in the Laurentians, particularly in the Morin-Heights, Val-David, Mont-Tremblant and Grenville-sur-la-Rouge areas.
It was then that Outaouais (2,838 customers without electricity) was the most affected region, specifically in the La Petite-Nation sector. The Lanaudière region, for its part, is starting to see light at the end of the tunnel, with 1,732 customers reconnecting.
2000 employees at 1100 intervention sites
Even the work is progressing wellThey are very complicatedadded Ms. Chouinard unwilling to move forward with deadlines. Most of our customers will be returning by the weekend, but there may still be some places to work early next week.
Interventions from 2000 employees are still needed at more than 1100 sites. The repairs, in sometimes remote areas, only restore service to a small number of customers at a time, the state-owned company added.
In Ontario, 19,000 Hydro Ottawa customers were without electricity until 2 pm Saturday. Nearly 27,000 Hydro One customers were also affected by the outages on Saturday morning. The storms last Saturday killed at least 11 people in Ontario and Quebec. The most recent death, reported Thursday, was of a 58-year-old man who according to Ontario Provincial Police was hit by a fallen tree.
Source: Radio-Canada
