In the summer of 1990, then-Quebec energy minister Lise Bacon warned Quebecers they would freeze in the dark before the turn of the century if the massive Great Whale hydroelectric project wasn’t approved.

Sixteen years later, the Great Whale River in the James Bay region still hasn’t been dammed, yet light bulbs and furnaces continue to come on across Quebec.

Bacon’s hyperbole is just one small example of how politically charged Hydro-Québec and its development projects can be in Quebec. For five decades, Hydro-Québec has been the embodiment of the province’s economic aspirations and served as a political tool for successive governments.

Indeed, the utility has been a key lever of economic policy ever since the Quebec government nationalized electricity in the 1960s under then-premier Jean Lesage, the father of the Quiet Revolution, whose rallying cry was, “Maîtres chez nous” (“Masters in our own house”). Former premier Robert Bourassa, whose development of James Bay hydro in the 1970s is seen as his greatest legacy, used the promise of a second wave of projects in the North to fuel a comeback in 1985.

Now, Premier Jean Charest is following the same game plan as his predecessors. He wants to use North America’s largest utility, with 41,000 megawatts of capacity, to rekindle his political fortunes.

Charest’s Liberal government recently announced an ambitious energy strategy that will see Hydro-Québec spend $25 billion over the next 10 years to build dams generating 4,500 megawatts of electricity.

The government wants Hydro to build more capacity than Quebec needs in order to make 1,000 megawatts available for export to energy-hungry markets in Ontario and the northeastern United States. Exports have provided a boost to Hydro’s profits in the past, but growing consumption in Quebec has curtailed excess output in recent years. Quebec was forced to import energy from the U.S. this year to respond to peak demand.

The little bit of electricity for export that Hydro did make in 2005 demonstrates just how lucrative these deliveries can be. Exports accounted for just 4% of Hydro’s output last year — but more than 30% of its profit.

“Our gold, our oil, is hydroelectricity,” Charest has said.

The new hydroelectric projects are expected to create 70,000 jobs in the construction phase and they immediately won the approval of the province’s normally hostile union federations.

The projects are part of a larger 134-page energy policy that also envisages the creation of 4,000 megawatts of wind power and a conservation plan that will save consumers $2.5 billion a year by 2015.

Great Whale, shelved in 1994 after a successful campaign against it by the Cree of northern Quebec, isn’t back on the drawing board. Yet Charest says Hydro is looking at new projects on the North Shore near Labrador and the Nunavik region in the Far North.

Things appear destined to be quieter with aboriginals than they were in the 1990s. The Quebec government has signed agreements with the both the Cree and Inuit of northern Quebec to allow development on their territory in exchange for a share of the proceeds. One area of difficulty could be unresolved land claims by the Innu of the North Shore.

The main opposition to the energy strategy so far has come from environmental groups. But it has been relatively muted, with the focus on the possibility that projects on small rivers would be resurrected after a lengthy moratorium.

Environmentalists appear resigned to large-scale hydro projects despite any noxious effects on rivers, forests and wildlife. To see the alternative, they have only to look outside Quebec’s borders to a renewed push for nuclear power in Ontario or the proliferation of natural-gas plants in New England.

Charest, whose government is deeply unpopular with voters, succeeded in delivering a coherent and forward-looking plan to harness Quebec’s energy resources over the next decade. Now, it remains to be seen whether he can transform hydro power into votes. IE