Quebec Premier to Shuffle Cabinet Today After ‘Superminister’ Fitzgibbon Steps Down

Quebec Premier François Legault was peppered with questions about electricity rates on Thursday as he was set to name a new minister responsible for navigating a major energy reform with billions of dollars of investment.
Wrapping up a caucus retreat in Rimouski, Que., about 265 kilometres northeast of Quebec City, Legault told reporters that over the past two days his team prepared for the upcoming legislative session by discussing issues such as health care, decarbonization and immigration.
But many of the questions directed at him involved the provincially owned utility—Hydro-Québec—and who will end up paying for investments topping $150 billion over the next decade that are expected to double its capacity.
Legault insisted that residential rates wouldn’t rise more than three percent a year “as long as I’m premier, and in the foreseeable future.” But he hinted business will start to see their bills rise.
“It’s Quebecers who are the real owners of Hydro-Québec,” he said, “and it’s normal they are the ones who will benefit.”
The reporters’ questions on electricity rates were tied to the resignation on Wednesday of Pierre Fitzgibbon, Legault’s “superminister” who held the economy and energy portfolios.
Fitzgibbon said he had lost some motivation to do the job, and he left office halfway through his party’s second term—and ahead of Tuesday’s reopening of the legislature, where members will begin hearings on the massive energy reform bill he tabled in June. The legislation makes sweeping changes to the way the province’s hydro utility operates and how electricity rates will be fixed, among other things.
The person who will inherit the job of guiding the bill into law will be announced Thursday afternoon in Quebec City.
Legault said he will remain heavily involved in the reform, which he called a “very important project for the future of Quebec.”
In addition to economy and energy, Fitzgibbon also held the innovation portfolio and was the minister responsible for the Montreal region.