Hydro-Québec has launched a telephone survey of elected municipal officials and municipal management in MRC Pontiac in order to find out the degree of satisfaction in the various communities.

Their community relations agent, Alain Paquette, explained that the survey will help guide the state-owned company in its operations in the region and strengthen ties with the community:

Municipalities in the upper Pontiac, such as L’Isle aux Allumettes, Waltham, Chichester and Sheenboro have faced longstanding issues with spotty electrical service in the previous decade, coming to a head in 2016 when a large power surge melted surge protectors and destroyed numerous appliances and commercial equipment. In the months and years following, there were numerous meetings between municipal representatives, Pontiac MNA André Fortin, and Hydro Quebec.

According to statistics compiled by local resident David Gillespie, as well as Hydro Quebec themselves, there has been significant improvement in the past two years.

Paquette pointed to the various maintenance efforts they were carrying out throughout the territory, from vegetation control to work on the Bryson generating station to the modernization of the Wyman substation: