The 2001 project that sought to reopen a pulp and paper mill in Chandler, financed by the government, sunk like the proverbial lead balloon, costing about half a billion dollars with nothing to show for it.
The PQ government was blamed harshly by the commissioner appointed to inquire into the fiasco,
"In its report released Friday, Justice Robert Lesage denounced political pressure by the Parti Québécois to revive the paper mill in Chandler."
Judge Lesage blamed mainly the former PQ government for the failure of the project, accusing it of the sin of electioneering under the impulse of an interventionist ideology." Link{fr}
If you've got a lot of time, read the complete report on the Gaspésia fiasco by commissioner Robert Lesage;
Rapport d’enquête sur les dépassements de coûts et de délais du chantier de la Société Papiers Gaspésia de Chandler {fr}
Pauline Marois and her husband Claude Blanchet were the showrunners of the project and never fully managed to wash the stink of the disaster off.
You'd think Pauline would have learned from that disaster, that fooling around with public money on a whim is not exactly the best of ideas, but alas she is at it again throwing good money after bad in the province's reckless pursuit of wind power, another billion dollar boondoggle.
Of course the people of the Gaspé live in a fantasy world where they actually believe they are innovators and pioneers in wind power and organic waste electric generation, instead of the panhandlers and beggars that they always were.
Here's a blog piece on another fine French blog Agora.com entitled Après Gaspésia, Éolia ?"This third contract with Hydro-Quebec confirms the leadership of Innoventé in the power production from organic waste. We rejoice that a community such as Matane has chosen the technology of Innoventé to revive the plant and implement a new viable, green and sustainable industry, declares Mr. Richard Painchaud, President of Innoventé. We are happy to be able to count on the collaboration of all stakeholders in the field".For the mayor of Matane, Mr. Claude Canuel, who views his city as the Mecca of the wind power industry in Quebec, Innoventé's project will have a positive impact in strengthening the role of Matane in the field of renewable energy, rationalization of the forestry sector, the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions, and achieving the City of Matane's objectives regarding sustainable development. Mr. Mayor Canuel went further by affirming: "I want to emphasize the determination of the President of Innoventé, Mr. Richard Painchaud, without which the revival of the RockTenn plant would not have been impossible". Link
I've taken the liberty to translate the piece because it is something that you won't find in the mainstream press and is well-written and of utmost interest.
If you read French please do the author the courtesy of reading the piece on his blog and if so inclined please leave a comment there.
In 2001, when the PQ was in power it had on the drawing board an ambitious project called 'Gaspésia', a plan to reopen a paper mill in the Gaspé:'' On 17 December 2001, the former premier Bernard Landry, Claude Blanchet and President of Tembec, Frank Dottori, announced the revival of Gaspésia, a $463 million project. The Solidarity Fund of the QFL would own 50% shares of Gaspésia Paper, Tembec and SGF (Qc government investment arm run by Pauline's Hubby ..editor) splitting the rest of the shares. In front of 500 people, Mr. Blanchet hyped the presence of a partner "with deep pockets" as Tembec's Dottori hid his face in his hands, making the crowd laugh. During their press conference, Mr. Dottori said that "this is a high-risk project."'
The project was in fact a total fiasco, with refitting costs exploding by some $200 million. But the plant never opened its doors, and a total loss of $500 million was written off . At that time the finance minister was ... Pauline Marois.
Judge Lesage, analyzing this fiasco inculps Claude Blanchet and indirectly Pauline Marois:'' In his report, Judge Lesage takes Bernard Landry to task, but rips violently into Claude Blanchet, former CEO of General Finance Corporation. Between these two, Pauline Marois is not blameless, as finance minister at the time.
Everyone also remembers the press conference where Mr. Blanchet revealed that pressure had been put upon him to commit the SGF financially to the project. This pressure came not only from Premier Landry, but also "dear Pauline," his wife.''
To our great misfortune, there are similarities between the development of wind power as proposed by the current government and that disastrous Gaspesia plan: Both projects claim to help create jobs in disadvantaged regions and both projects relate to industries in deep difficulty, with diminishing demand for paper products with the development of electronic media for Gaspésia and wind power too expensive to compete with the natural gas produced by our southern neighbors.
Even more disturbing is what Pauline Marois said in August 2012:'' The Parti Quebecois leader told us that she wants to "turn the page" on the fiasco that was Gaspésia. But she said she did not have any regrets.
''Her greenish Minister of natural resources, Martine Ouellet doesn't seem aware of the statistics released this week by the MEI in regards to the wind industry:'' For the Montreal Economic Institute, it is clear that the industry receives an implicit subsidy of $700 million per year, paid for by all Quebec consumers through their electricity bill'' For those less familiar with the matter, let me summarize it this way: the cost of generating electricity with wind power is 14¢ per KWH while the sale price on the export market (since we already have a surplus of elecvctricity) is ...6¢ per KWH. No private company would proceed in light of such figures!
Therefore, each Quebecer who pays taxes donates $180 to the wind industry (each year..editor) . Yet despite these figures Minister Ouellet is convinced that the wind industry does not have to worry about its future! One of the problems in the Gaspésia project was the hyper-unionisation that added to the cost of production. To build a Quebec wind turbine costs about 70% more than anywhere in North America, which adds more to the similarities between these two famous projects!
While in his tenure as prime minister, Bernard Landry cost this province one disastrous project, now Pauline Marois intends to make us relive the same type of fiasco, but annually!
Worst in all this, is that her own party is more concerned with duplication of services with the federal government. In this case one political party seems to have its eyes open, the Conservative Party of Quebec and its leaders who penned this opinion piece: Scandale éolienIn that article, Adrien Pouliet, head of the fledgling Quebec conservative party made it painfully clear;
"Quebec wind turbines generate losses estimated at nearly $ 700 million per year according to the Montreal Economic Institute. The importance of these staggering losses deserves an explanation from the PQ government as to how such financial mismanagement has occurred and especially, why it persists and worse still, encourages more wind generation losses." Read more{fr}Of course, Pauline dodged responsibility for the Gaspesia affair, choosing to blame the Liberal government which was forced to clean up the mess, after the PQ government fell.
For a definitive review of the folly of wind power read The Growing Cost of Electricity Production in Quebec by the Montreal Economic Institute.
And so Pauline and the PQ go merrily rolling along, confident that she and her party can bamboozle Quebecers into paying $700 million a year to support her fading dream of getting the Gaspé sinkhole off the dole, thus fulfilling her dream of keeping the area economically alive.
But not so fast.....
Unlike the Gaspésia disaster or the Caisse de dépôt $39 billion meltdown, news of which was sprung upon hapless taxpayers after the fact, the ongoing financial disaster in relation to wind power is drawing attention, a lot of attention, and I'm not sure that Marois and company can face the music of a concerted political campaign by both the press and the opposition.
Here is just a sample of what the Press is saying;
Blowing our tax dollars on windmills
"Who doesn't love windmills? The very word conjures up nostalgic images of solitary brick or wooden towers with vanes set against picturesque fields. Of course, wind farms nowadays are filled with row upon row of tall, steel tube towers, but even these wind turbines have a sparse, modern beauty to them.
The thing is, wind power is also expensive. In Quebec, it's about 2.5 times more expensive to produce than hydroelectricity from large dams in the James Bay area (roughly 14¢ versus 5.5¢ per kWh), which accounts for most of the electricity produced by Hydro-Quebec.
Moreover, the province has more energy than it needs, which is why the government cancelled six small hydroelectric projects earlier this year. If that's the case, why are Quebec taxpayers still indirectly subsidizing the wind power industry to the tune of $695 million a year? And why is the government announcing new supply contracts for wind power? " Link
Hadekel: Politics raising Quebec energy costs
Quebecers pay literally hundreds of millions of dollars a year to produce electricity from wind turbines that they don’t need,” economist Youri Chassin says in a note published by the Montreal Economic Institute. “This energy is 2.5 times more expensive than hydroelectricity.”
He figures the net cost of wind power, including transportation, distribution and integration into the grid, is a little more than 14 cents a kilowatt hour, compared with small hydro power at 11.5 cents and legacy installations like the La Grande and Manic dams at 5.5 cents.
The implicit subsidy to wind production works out to $695 million a year.
Now, you might have political reasons to favour wind if you think it’s a better source of energy at a time of climate change.
However, both wind and hydro are clean and renewable and hydro dams have a longer lifespan than wind turbines, which must be decommissioned after 20 or 25 years. Link
More and more articles are starting to be published in both the French and English press and a din of protest is rising. When the Fall session of the Parliament begins, it is likely that all Hell will break loose and with no defensible position, Pauline is going to have to shuck and jive.
And so it is no surprise that the PQ government is making noises about creating a consultative commission to gather public opinion in relation to energy policies, perhaps a way to wriggle out of the ongoing disaster by shifting the blame.
After all, it's a Pauline specialty.
