Lily Ryan
During the coldest of 2026 mornings, some 2,500 homes in Upper Pontiac were left in the dark. Electrical black-outs have plagued the region and testing the limits of both residents and politicians. “We can not wait until 2028 to have the infrastructure improved,” Warden Jane Toller told the Pontiac Journal. “This is beyond urgent.”
The breakdown occurred in the early hours of Saturday January 24, amid warnings of extreme cold from Environment Canada. The aging infrastructure serving hydro customers belongs, in part, to Evolugen, a subsidiary of Brookfield Energy. Their station near Waltham is slated for urgent repairs. “Not urgent enough, apparently,” freezing residents who asked to remain nameless, told the Pontiac Journal. The people of Sheenboro, Chapeau, Chichester, Waltham, Davidson areas have lost their patience with ongoing power outages, this latest apparently related to higher electricity usage during the deep cold.