Quebec has learned nothing from the lessons of the pandemic on the vulnerability of its CHSLDs, judges the opposition. Two of these establishments had to wait more than three days before being reconnected to the Hydro-Québec network following the April 5 ice storm.
“The situation is completely unacceptable, and the worst part is that it was avoidable! “, protested Wednesday the spokesperson for the official opposition for seniors, Linda Caron. “Can the Minister ensure that for this kind of event, CHSLDs have the same protections as our hospitals? The dignity of seniors is at stake! »
Wednesday morning, The Press reported that at least two public CHSLDs in Montreal had to wait more than 72 hours to fully restore power after last Wednesday’s freezing rain storm.
However, these establishments were to be treated as a priority by Hydro-Québec, according to what the Crown corporation had indicated shortly after the start of the crisis.
Already confronted with the fact that certain private residences for seniors (RPA) had to wait several days before finding the current, Hydro-Québec had explained that some of these establishments were not registered as such on the lists of Public Security. However, in the case of public CHSLDs, they report directly to the Government of Quebec.
” A major problem ”
“It is a major problem that the lists of priority buildings for reconnection are not up to date. This is all the more so when we are talking about buildings that have not just come out of the ground. How could we forget them? asked the spokesperson for Québec solidaire for seniors, Christine Labrie.
The latter says she expects Quebec to do its best to prevent such situations from happening again. “That involves checking whether all the CHSLDs are on the list of priority buildings and whether their emergency plans are adequate”, slices the MP.
Same story with his counterpart in the Parti Québécois, Joël Arseneau. “The confusion in the reconnection priority list is deplorable, especially when we are talking about a public body like Hydro-Québec and establishments under the responsibility of the Ministry of Health and Social Services,” he laments.
“There is a form of laxity there, a lack of rigor to be corrected, because such an event cannot happen again in the future,” he adds.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Public Security had still not responded to a series of questions sent by The Press Tuesday morning about the government’s prioritization in the reconnection of care facilities.
Hydro explains
Hydro-Québec reacted for its part by affirming that “all that was done before the restoration of CHSLDs was the restoration of establishments and infrastructures which are emergencies for the life and health and safety of citizens” .
Residential customers who found power before some CHSLDs found it because they were on the lines of priority establishments. For example, priority works to restore power for a hospital will restore power for more than just the hospital.
Caroline Desrosiers, spokesperson for Hydro-Québec
“Sometimes 10,000 customers can be affected by outages that need to be repaired for a priority establishment,” she also added.
Recall that late Saturday evening, while the CHSLD Pierre-Joseph-Triest was still waiting to be reconnected to the Hydro-Quebec network, the state-owned company had restored power to more than a million homes.