Montreal Light, Heat & Power

Last updated
Logo of the company Montreal Light, Heat and Power Logo.svg
Logo of the company

The Montreal Light, Heat and Power Company (MLH&P) was a utility company operating the electric and gas distribution monopoly in the area of Montreal, Quebec, Canada, until its nationalization by the government of Quebec in 1944, under a law creating the Quebec Hydroelectric Commission, also known as Hydro-Québec.

Contents

Hydro-Québec ran both of MLH&P's electric and gas operations until 1957, when its gas properties were sold to the Corporation de gaz naturel du Québec, known today as Énergir.

The company was established in 1901 as a result of the merger of Rodolphe Forget's Royal Electric Company and Herbert Samuel Holt's Montreal Gas Company. [1] Its name became Montreal Light, Heat and Power Consolidated in 1918 after a merger and corporate reorganization. [2]

See also

Related Research Articles

Polytechnique Montréal Engineering university in Montréal, Quebec, Canada

Polytechnique Montréal is an engineering school affiliated with the Université de Montréal in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It ranks first in Canada for the scope of its engineering research. It is occasionally referred to as Montreal Polytechnic, although in Quebec English its French name is more commonly used. The school offers graduate and postgraduate training, and is very active in research. Following tradition, new Bachelors of Engineering (B.Eng) graduating from the École Polytechnique receive an Iron Ring, during the Canadian Ritual of the Calling of an Engineer ceremony.

Hydro-Québec Hydroelectric utility

Hydro-Québec is a public utility that manages the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity in the Canadian province of Quebec, as well as the export of power to portions of the Northeast United States.

Emera

Emera Incorporated is a publicly traded Canadian multinational energy holding company based in Halifax, Nova Scotia. Created in 1998 during the privatization of Nova Scotia Power, a provincial Crown corporation, Emera now invests in regulated electricity generation as well as transmission and distribution across North America and the Caribbean.

NB Power

New Brunswick Power Corporation, operating as NB Power, is the primary electric utility in the Canadian province of New Brunswick. NB Power is a vertically-integrated Crown Corporation wholly owned by the Government of New Brunswick and is responsible for the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. NB Power serves all the residential and industrial power consumers in New Brunswick, with the exception of those in Saint John, Edmundston and Perth-Andover who are served by Saint John Energy, Energy Edmundston, and the Perth-Andover Electric Light Commission, respectively.

Electricity sector in Canada Canada electricity sector

The electricity sector in Canada has played a significant role in the economic and political life of the country since the late 19th century. The sector is organized along provincial and territorial lines. In a majority of provinces, large government-owned integrated public utilities play a leading role in the generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. Ontario and Alberta have created electricity markets in the last decade in order to increase investment and competition in this sector of the economy.

Thomas Ahearn

Thomas Ahearn, PC was a Canadian inventor and businessman. Ahearn, a native of Ottawa, Ontario, was instrumental in the success of a vast streetcar system that was once in Ottawa, the Ottawa Electric Railway, and was the first chairman of Canada's Federal District Commission in 1927. He held several patents related to electrical items and headed companies which competed for decades with Ottawa Hydro as providers for electricity in Ottawa. Ahearn co-founded the Ottawa Car Company, a manufacturer of streetcars for Canadian markets.

Beauharnois scandal

The Beauharnois scandal was a Canadian political scandal around 1930. The Beauharnois Light, Heat and Power Company had given $700,000 to the ruling Liberal Party of Canada in the run-up to the 1930 federal election in exchange for the right to change the flow of the St. Lawrence River through building a hydroelectric power station.

Herbert Samuel Holt

Sir Herbert Samuel Holt was an Irish-born Canadian civil engineer who became a businessman, banker, and corporate director with a ruthless business reputation. He was President of the Royal Bank of Canada, Montreal Light, Heat & Power, and a director of some 250 companies worldwide, with assets valued at around $200 million. On his death, the Montreal Gazette described him as "the richest man in Canada", but he was also one of the most reviled. Among his peers in the Golden Square Mile, "everyone respected his business ability, but nobody liked him personally". Holt was one of the founders of the Town of Hampstead, Quebec

Robert Mackay (businessman)

Robert Mackay was a Canadian businessman and statesman.

Louis-Joseph Forget Canadian businessman and politician

Louis-Joseph Forget was a Canadian businessman and politician.

Energy policy of Canada about Canadas federal and provincial energy policies

Canada has access to all main sources of energy including oil and gas, coal, hydropower, biomass, solar, geothermal, wind, marine and nuclear. It is the world's second largest producer of uranium, third largest producer of hydro-electricity, fourth largest natural gas producer, and the fifth largest producer of crude oil. In 2006, only Russia, the People's Republic of China, the United States and Saudi Arabia produce more total energy than Canada.

Rodolphe Forget French-Canadian businessman and politician

Colonel Sir Joseph David Rodolphe Forget was a Canadian business investor, stockbroker, and politician. He held national directorships and had major investments in energy companies, as well as industrial concerns and railway companies in the Provinces of Quebec and Ontario. He was one of the few French Canadian business magnates of his time.

Hydro-Québecs electricity transmission system An international power transmission system centred in Quebec, Canada

Hydro-Québec's electricity transmission system is an international electric power transmission system centred in Quebec, Canada. The system pioneered the use of very high voltage 735 kiloVolts (kV) alternating current (AC) power lines that link the population centres of Montreal and Quebec City to distant hydroelectric power stations like the Daniel-Johnson Dam and the James Bay Project in northwestern Quebec and the Churchill Falls Generating Station in Labrador.

Hydro Ottawa Municipal electrical utility in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

Hydro Ottawa is a regulated electricity distribution company operating in the City of Ottawa and the Village of Casselman in Ontario, Canada. As the third-largest municipally owned electrical utility in Ontario, Hydro Ottawa maintains the electricity distribution systems in the province, and serves over 335,000 residential and commercial customers across a service area of 1,100 square kilometres.

With more than $7 billion in assets, Énergir, formerly known as Gaz Métro, is a diversified energy company with 520,000 customers. It is the largest natural gas distribution company in Quebec, and also produces, through its subsidiaries, electricity from wind power. In the United States, through its subsidiaries, the company operates in nearly fifteen states, where it produces electricity from hydraulic, wind and solar sources, in addition to being the leading electricity distributor and the sole natural gas distributor in Vermont.

Hydro-Québec is a government-owned public utility established in 1944 by the Government of Quebec. The company is in charge of the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity across Quebec. Its head office is located in Montreal.

History of electricity sector in Canada

The history of electricity sector in Canada has played a significant role in the economic and political life of the country since wide-scale industrial and commercial power services spread across the country in the 1880s. The development of hydropower in the early 20th century has profoundly affected the economy and the political life in Canada and has come to symbolize the transition from "old " industrialism of the 19th century to a "new", modern and diversified, Canadian economy.

Michel Clair is an administrator and former politician in the Canadian province of Quebec. He was a Parti Québécois member of the National Assembly of Quebec from 1976 to 1985 and served as a cabinet minister in the governments of René Lévesque and Pierre-Marc Johnson. Clair later became an executive administrator with Hydro-Québec.

Tracy Thermal Generating Station

The Tracy Thermal Generating Station is a retired 660-megawatt heavy fuel oil-fueled thermal power station built from 1962 by the Shawinigan Water & Power Company and completed by Hydro-Québec after the buyout of all private electric utilities by the government of Quebec in 1963. Commissioned between 1964 and 1968, the plant is located on the banks of the Saint Lawrence River in the city of Sorel-Tracy, in the Montérégie Region.

Nationalization of electricity in Quebec includes two series of events that led to the creation of Hydro-Québec in 1944 and the nationalization of private electricity companies in Quebec in two steps.

References

  1. "Rodolphe Forget". Dictionary of Canadian Biography. Retrieved August 24, 2019.
  2. Statutes of the Province of Quebec, 8 George V ch. 111, 1918.