GTA San Andreas Electric City 2011l
Edgars Rob
The history of electricity sector in Canada has played a significant role in the economic and political life of the country since wide-scale industrial and commercial power services spread across the country in the 1880s.[1] The development of hydropower in the early 20th century has profoundly affected the economy and the political life in Canada and has come to symbolize the transition from "old " industrialism of the 19th century to a "new", modern and diversified, Canadian economy.[2]
As early as 1873, an electric arc light was demonstrated in Winnipeg Manitoba.[3] But Canada's use of electricity as mass-market service began in earnest in 1881, when Ottawa entrepreneur Thomas Ahearn installed Canada's first water-powered generator at the Chaudiere Falls,[4] and later that year a steam generator lit a public skating rink in downtown Toronto.[1] By 1883, the Houses of Parliament and Toronto's Central National Exhibition were illuminated by electric lights.[5] And by 1885, public street lighting had been introduced in many Canadian Cities, including Hamilton, Quebec, Montreal, and Ottawa - which became the first city in the world to electrically light all of its streets.[4]
The Quebec government was a latecomer as far as its involvement in the electricity sector is concerned. After an anarchic period, the industry consolidated into a duopoly of investor-owned utilities. In Quebec's largest city, Montreal Light, Heat & Power (MLH&P) became the dominant player through mergers with competitors.[11]
Calls for nationalization of the industry began during the Great Depression, after a political scandal surrounded the construction of the Beauharnois Hydroelectric Power Station, on the Saint Lawrence River, west of Montreal.[13] Critics attacked the "electricity trust" for their abusive rates and excessive profits. The campaign, masterminded by Philippe Hamel and T.-D. Bouchard, led to the nationalization of MLH&P and the creation of Hydro-Québec by the liberal government of Adélard Godbout in 1944.[14] The other electric companies were taken over by Hydro-Québec in 1963, following a snap election on the issue of electricity spearheaded by René Lévesque, the provincial minister in charge of Natural Resources in the Jean Lesage government.[15]