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HAVRE-SAINT-PIERRE — With former premier Jean Charest on hand to see the completion of a project he helped launch in 2009, Quebec inaugurated the massive Romaine Complex hydro development project, which is supposed to provide Quebecers power for the next 100 years.

At an event held at the site itself on Quebec’s north shore Thursday, Premier François Legault and other dignitaries joined forces to kick the project — which has been generating power since 2022 — into gear in an official way.

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The event was attended by many of the thousands of workers who toiled in the north to make it happen. They stood in hard hats and work gear while the dignitaries in suits spoke. Earlier, they gathered for a group photo below the massive Romaine 1 dam to mark the event.

“I am proud to inaugurate the installations of the Romaine, the largest hydroelectric complex since James Bay and a symbol of our nation’s engineering,” Legault said in remarks. “It is an essential project for our energy future, which will respond to our industrial needs for 100 years.”

With a production capacity of 1,550 megawatts or eight TWh a year — enough power to supply 470,000 homes — the project cost a total of $7.4 billion to build. That amounts to 6.4 cents a kilowatt hour, a highly competitive rate on hydro markets.

The project was launched in 2009 while Charest was premier. He was invited to the ceremony, with Legault mentioning him first in his remarks.

“It’s not easy to launch projects, so I say before everyone to you, bravo, bravo,” Legault said.

Legault also praised other politicians who occupied the premier’s chair and had about the same hydroelectric vision: Jean Lesage, René Lévesque, Robert Bourassa.

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“When we launch hydro projects, and Robert Bourassa can attest to this, there is always a negative reaction,” Legault said. “You made the right choices.”

Launched in 2009 when the Liberals were in power, the project includes four dams, reservoirs and generating stations strung in a row along the Romaine River, which is on Quebec’s north shore of the St. Lawrence, north of Havre-Saint-Pierre.

The first part of the project, Romaine 2, went on line in 2014. Romaine 4, the last part of the project, started generating power in 2022. The reservoirs alone cover a total of 279 square kilometres.

Legault mentioned the project was built with the co-operation of the Innu, who benefitted economically, a formula he says he would like to see used in the future. Legault has said in the past he would like to see Quebec develop four or five more hydro dam projects.

“Hydro-electrical power is win, win for both our nations,” Legault said.

At its peak, 1,000 workers were active on the site. There was also a hush when Legault mentioned the four workers who died during the 13-year construction phase of the project.

The inauguration comes as Quebec steps up efforts to find new sources of clean power while it slowly tries to wean itself off fossil fuels.

Hydro-Québec estimates Quebec will not have enough power production capacity starting in 2027. By then the province will need to add an additional 100 terawatts (TWh) to the grid — a 50-per-cent increase — to attain the stated goal of carbon neutrality by 2050.

Hydro’s current capacity is 210 TWh a year.

Legault repeated that he sees hydro electrical power as the best option for the future because while attractive, turbine wind power is intermittent.

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