{"id":174262,"date":"2026-08-19T16:30:30","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T16:30:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/174262\/"},"modified":"2026-08-19T16:30:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T16:30:30","slug":"explainer-what-will-the-new-churchill-falls-deal-mean-for-quebec-and-your-hydro-bill","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/174262\/","title":{"rendered":"Explainer: What will the new Churchill Falls deal mean for Quebec and your hydro bill?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Quebec has secured a tentative new deal over Churchill Falls<\/a> amid a decades-long dispute and tense negotiations with Newfoundland and Labrador. But what does the energy agreement worth billions of dollars mean for Quebec?<\/p>\n

Louis Beaumier, executive director of the Trottier Energy Institute at Polytechnique Montr\u00e9al, said his \u201coverall impression is it\u2019s a good deal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m struggling to find something that\u2019s not good,\u201d he said in an interview Tuesday, noting that the next steps toward finalizing the deal include discussions with Innu communities.<\/p>\n

In terms of hydroelectricity, Beaumier said, \u201cthis is probably the cheapest hydro power we can get.\u201d<\/p>\n

When announcing the non-binding agreement Monday, Quebec Premier Christine Fr\u00e9chette said it would help meet the province\u2019s energy demands for the next 50 years. The deal, which replaces a scrapped 2024 memorandum of understanding, is what Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Tony Wakeham called a \u201crare win-win-win\u201d outcome for both provinces and the federal government.<\/p>\n

Over the course of five decades, Quebec will pay an average of six cents per kilowatt hour and have access to a potential of more than 10,000 megawatts of electricity, according to Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec. The cost is about one-third of alternatives, with the energy provider saying the renegotiated fee is a competitive rate.<\/p>\n

Quebec will pay a higher price for hydroelectricity from Churchill Falls under the new deal compared with the controversial 1969 agreement. The original contract has long been criticized as lopsided in Quebec\u2019s favour, fuelling years of resentment from Newfoundland and Labrador.<\/p>\n

Under the 1969 agreement, Quebec took on the bulk of the financial risk of building the dam in exchange for the right to buy power at a low price. As of 2023, the contract had generated $28 billion for Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec, while Newfoundland and Labrador saw a $2-billion return. The original contract is set to expire in 2041, but negotiators are hoping to finalize the new draft agreement by the end of this year.<\/p>\n

Fran\u00e7ois Bouffard, associate professor of electrical engineering at McGill University, said from his perspective as a long-term planner for power systems, \u201c2041 is tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTime is of the essence here,\u201d he said, because \u201cfrom a hydro development perspective, nothing gets moving fast.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dave Rh\u00e9aume, executive vice-president of energy and regulatory strategy and industrial operations at Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec, said \u201cthe alternative, if you can\u2019t reach an agreement, is to build new infrastructure.\u201d<\/p>\n

But that, combined with letting the clock run out on the 1969 agreement \u2014 even if the fees are lower than those in the new deal \u2014 would cost more in the long run.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll save between now and (2041), but when the time comes, the shock is sure to be much greater,\u201d Rh\u00e9aume said of the costs.<\/p>\n

\t\tEditor\u2019s Picks\t<\/p>\n

Rate hikes, eventually<\/p>\n

In securing continued access to Churchill Falls, Quebec will be paying more than it does now. How will it affect Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec customers\u2019 rates in the years to come?<\/p>\n

\u201cIt would be lying\u201d to say a new pact \u201cwill not have an impact on rates,\u201d according to the Trottier Energy Institute\u2019s Beaumier.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery new capacity will have an impact on the rate. But in that case, I think we\u2019re getting the cheapest \u2014 it\u2019s probably the cheapest project we can get, or it\u2019s the project with the cheapest cost per kilowatt hour for consumers,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec that sets energy costs, though the utility does make requests to the province\u2019s energy board<\/a>. The board already set the rates for 2026 through 2028 earlier this year \u2014 and those won\u2019t change. Those increases, however, didn\u2019t take into account the new deal announced this week.<\/p>\n

A major factor in negotiating a new Churchill Falls agreement was starting with a low rate of \u201cabout 1.5 cents or less\u201d per kilowatt hour, according to Rh\u00e9aume. Hydro-Qu\u00e9bec pays 0.2 cents per kilowatt hour for energy under the existing contract.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe made sure to keep the increase curve very low so that, say, in the first year of the operation, everyone wouldn\u2019t suddenly say: \u2018Wow, my bill just went up 10 per cent,\u2019\u201d he said. \u201cWe wanted to make sure that didn\u2019t happen. So, customers won\u2019t see a distinct impact from the new agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really something that will blend in with the overall rate increases over time.\u201d<\/p>\n

McGill\u2019s Bouffard said electricity rates will eventually rise, but \u201cit\u2019s unclear as to which classes of customers will be taking the lion\u2019s share.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s the cost of this development versus the alternative,\u201d he said of the benefits of the latest Churchill Falls deal. \u201cIf we wanted to go full solar or full wind power backed by batteries or things like that, there is quite a large difference in the cost per kilowatt hour.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Bouffard, \u201cit\u2019s a no-brainer.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThere will be an escalation in costs. But based on the fact that we need more electricity, we\u2019re going to build more things,\u201d he said. \u201cThis is the cheapest option available at the moment that\u2019s technically feasible.\u201d<\/p>\n

klaframboise@postmedia.com<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Quebec has secured a tentative new deal over Churchill Falls amid a decades-long dispute and tense negotiations with…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":174263,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[12874,111],"class_list":["post-174262","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mark-carney","tag-hydro-quebec","tag-mark-carney"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174262","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=174262"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/174262\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/174263"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=174262"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=174262"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/canada\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=174262"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}