Chronology

Chaotic growth of an industry

1878-1929
Overview

The Paris World Fair of 1878 showed the world a new way of creating light: with electricity. In Québec and around the world, fierce competition between gas and electric lighting took off immediately. Fledgling electric utilities vied with one another for street lighting contracts in an effort to establish a profitable distribution system as quickly as possible. Among the hundreds of companies that sprang up, only a few survived, and these formed powerful local monopolies. In Montréal, the Montreal Light, Heat and Power Company eliminated all its competitors, while elsewhere in Québec, the Shawinigan Water and Power Company laid the cornerstone of a vast industrial complex by harnessing the Rivière Saint-Maurice. Abundant water resources made hydropower a logical choice, and this choice had a decisive effect on industrialization in Québec and on the use of its timber and mineral resources.

1878

The arc lamp, highlight of the Paris World Fair

At the World Fair in Paris, the world discovered a new way of creating light: electric lighting. Wonderstruck visitors strolling along the Avenue de l'Opéra saw the first "electric candle": an arc lamp invented by Pavel Jablochkov, a Russian engineer living in Paris. Montrealer J.-A.-I. Craig witnessed the event. He was fascinated by this method of lighting, "100 times more powerful" than gaslight. He returned to Montréal, and with the help of Jesuit friends, carried out an initial trial of the arc lamp on the roof of Collège Sainte-Marie at Bleury and Dorchester (today René-Lévesque Blvd.). Only a few passers-by were present at this initial "illumination" of the Montréal skyline.

1879

Public demonstration of the arc lamp in Montréal

On May 16, Craig conducted a public demonstration of the arc lamp in Montréal, this time at the Champ-de-Mars, the military parade ground. According to the following day's edition of the newspaper La Minerve, several thousand spectators expressed their satisfaction. The most enthusiastic described the lamp as a "midnight sun", and others spoke of it as an invention that would revolutionize their way of life.

Revolution in lighting

On October 21, in his laboratory in Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Alva Edison perfected the incandescent light bulb. He then conceived of a power generating station and a distribution system to which customers would be connected. In so doing, Edison initiated the amazing development of the electricity industry worldwide. Enthusiasm for electric power continued to grow as a variety of new and unanticipated applications were found in industry and business, as well as in many facets of daily life.

1884

Electricity supplants gas

With the support and collaboration of Senator J. Rosaire Thibodeau and Montréal financier and broker Rodolphe Forget, the Royal Electric Company, an American firm, established the foundations of its empire in Montréal. Against a background of intrigue and questionable maneuvers, the company succeeded in replacing gas with electricity for street lighting. By 1889, electric street lights could be found all over the city. Royal Electric became a monopoly and engaged in practices that soon made it very prosperous, but also hated by the public.

1885

Lighting of Dufferin Terrace in the city of Québec

The competition between gas and electric street lighting was as fierce in other parts of the province as in Montréal. On September 30, the Quebec & Levis Electric Light Company pulled off an impressive publicity coup by lighting Dufferin Terrace in Québec with 34 arc lamps, to the amazement of the numerous dignitaries and hundreds of spectators assembled for the event. The lamps were powered from Montmorency Falls generating station over a line some 30 kilometres long—a feat never before achieved in North America.

1892

The first electric streetcars in Montréal

Horse-drawn streetcars had existed in Montréal since 1861; now they were replaced by the first electric-powered streetcars. Other cities in Québec also adopted this method of public transit: Québec, Trois-Rivières and Sherbrooke. The most famous of the "horseless trams" was, without a doubt, the one that for years carried thousands of devout pilgrims from Québec's capital to the shrine at Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.

1898

Founding of Shawinigan Water and Power

American promoters obtained letters patent for the Shawinigan Water and Power Company, enabling Boston financier J.E. Aldred to lay the foundations of a company that would become one of the most diversified industrial empires in Québec in the first half of the 20th century. A young engineer from Boston, Julian C. Smith, was credited with the remarkable concept for developing the Rivière Saint-Maurice. This technical triumph was the keystone of Shawinigan Water and Power's financial success.

1901

Emergence of a powerful monopoly: Montreal Light, Heat and Power

The merger of the Montreal Gas Company and the Royal Electric Company was the brainchild of Herbert Samuel Holt. Holt laid the groundwork for what would become the vast industrial and financial empire of Montreal Light, Heat and Power Company (MLH&P). Faced with the immense potential for expansion offered by the electricity market, Holt succeeded in bringing together traditional competitors: gas and electricity. Arrogantly monopolistic, Montreal Light, Heat and Power consistently refused any form of collaboration with commissions of inquiry and agencies set up by the government to try to regulate the sale of electricity.

1906

The "Ontario Model" finds a home in Québec

At the turn of the 20th century, a strong trend toward municipal ownership of electricity distribution systems was taking shape in Ontario. On May 14, 1906, under the aegis of Adam Beck, an innovative businessman and influential politician, the Ontario Legislature passed a bill creating the Hydro Electric Power Commission of Ontario (HEPCO), or Ontario Hydro. At the outset, the organizational model was simple: electricity generation was left to the private sector, transmission was handled by the Commission, and distribution was the responsibility of the municipalities. The "Ontario Model" found supporters in Québec, where a number of towns and cities chose to place the electrical services in their territory under municipal control. In 1963, many municipalities accepted Hydro-Québec's buyout offer; the handful who kept their municipal distribution systems were Alma, Amos, Baie-Comeau, Coaticook, Joliette, Jonquière, Magog, Sherbrooke and Westmount.

1908

Undergrounding and urban aesthetics

A growing number of companies attempted to carve out a place for themselves in the lucrative public lighting market. More and more electric wires crossed overhead, and the Montréal cityscape grew uglier and uglier. Influenced by climate and urban aesthetics, Montréal became one of the first cities in North America to adopt a policy of undergrounding—burying power lines—a practice that improved the city's appearance and protected the power grid against bad weather.

1922

Alcan comes to Lac-Saint-Jean

Two renowned industrialists and financiers, William Price and James Duke, launched a joint project to build a powerful hydroelectric generating station on Île Maligne, at the headwaters of the Rivière Saguenay, which would meet the needs of their own pulp and paper mills and also provide power for the aluminum smelter that had just located in the region.

Over the next 40 years, Alcan (Aluminum Company of Canada) built the Chute-à-Caron, Shipshaw, Chute-du-Diable, Chute-à-la-Savanne and Chute-des-Passes generating stations, mainly to meet its own growing energy requirements.

1926

Development of the Gatineau, a necessity for the pulp and paper industry

At the initiative of the Canadian International Paper Co., Gatineau Power Company was formed to build and operate generating stations on the Gatineau and Ottawa rivers. Over the years, the generating facilities of Gatineau Power came to include the Corbeau, Chelsea, Rapides-Farmers and Paugan generating stations.

1929

Mammoth project on the Fleuve Saint-Laurent (St. Lawrence River)

In August 1929, Robert Oliver Sweezey began work on a run-of-river generating station at Beauharnois on the Saint-Laurent. But the New York stock market crash on "Black Thursday," October 24, and the subsequent depression seriously impeded the realization of Sweezey's dream. Financial problems piled up. Political scandals linked to the project damaged the engineer's credibility. Then came the coup de grâce. The Ontario government refused to make good on a contract between Ontario Hydro and Beauharnois Light, Heat and Power for the purchase of a large quantity of power produced by Beauharnois generating station. Driven to the brink of bankruptcy, Sweezey had no choice but to accept Herbert Holt's takeover offer. Holt got a bargain that reinforced Montreal Light, Heat and Power's supremacy in the Montréal electricity market.