Quebec getting gassed up naturally

Is it weird or wrong to get sentimental about a kitchen appliance?

We felt a tinge of some kind of emotion as we bid adieu to our electric stove after more than 25 years of faithful service. Countless cookies, cakes, Christmas turkeys and a few replaced elements later, the old Hotpoint ended its days with a wonky timer and an oven door held closed by duct tape.

His (her?) replacement, though, would have made him feel like Woody when Buzz Lightyear entered the scene in Toy Story. Our new cooking toy is a sleek new natural gas range, manufactured with loving care in Vietnam (with whom, en passant, Canada has a $4.5 billion trade deficit).

We’ve been waiting for this ever since we left our primitive little gas stove behind when we moved from Montreal, where almost the entire city is connected to the gas distribution grid. Quebec City, by contrast, is very much an under-tapped market, so to speak, when it comes to residential natural gas.

Shortly after we moved we swapped our electric heating system for a natural gas furnace, which meant Gaz Métro had to extend its line to our neighbourhood. Naturally, several neighbours hopped aboard the gas bandwagon once the grid was extended.

Call us natural gas dreamers - but we’re not the only ones (sorry, John Lennon). Despite the loud and persuasive movement against fracking Quebec’s own enormous reserves, Quebecers are increasingly crazy for natural gas, which is, chemically speaking, mostly methane. The supply Gaz Métro distributes comes from the Canadian West and the United States (where fracking is less fraught).

Gaz Métro, owned 60 percent by a Caisse de dépot-led consortium and 40 percent by Alberta-based energy giant Enbridge, is systematically expanding the network to cities and towns across the province. For example, earlier this year towns in the Bellechasse region got connected to the network through a $42 million extension. When the switch was flipped, 88 companies along the 72-km line, had already converted.

It’s apparent what is driving the move to natural gas in Quebec - and where the real money is for the supply chain - is industry, not so much residential customers. The bottom line is it’s much cheaper than other sources, meaning electricity or oil. One business owner in Bellechasse, said he’d save a minimum $30,000 a year on energy by making the switch to natural gas.

There’s also the green thing. Officials estimate bringing natural gas to Bellechasse will reduce greenhouse gases by 8,600 tonnes a year, the equivalent of the emissions from 2,000 cars.

Then there’s liquified natural gas (LNG), which if you don’t like pipelines, is an increasingly popular option with big volume energy users.

A recent example is Quebec’s one and only diamond mine, Stornoway’s Renard operation in the Otish Mountains, reached by a new 240-km road extension from Chibougamau. As of this time last year, some 800 giant tanker-trucks annually will make the trip from Gaz Métro’s new liquefaction facility in Montreal.

A pilot project is in the works to supply the huge Arcelormittal iron ore pellet plant in Port Cartier, which could open the door for supplying the string of other huge industrial operations on the North Shore.

And, dare we say, it offers the stoic folks of the Lower North Shore hope of liberating themselves from the dirty diesel that fuels much of their current power supply. Further north, Inuit communities also dependant on diesel, are a prime market for LNG.

Trucking and marine shipping companies are also going gas, as the LNG distribution network expands. A string of LNG and compressed natural gas (CNG) refuelling stations, known as the Blue Road, is springing up along major transportation corridors in the province, the tenth and latest near Sherbrooke. It’s operated by Sani-estrie, which is gradually converting its garbage truck fleet to LNG.

While the Quebec government may have gone to ground, for now, on natural gas production on home soil, it’s obvious from their recently released 2030 Energy Plan they’re betting big on gas as one way to reduce greenhouse gases, and the energy cost of industry.

As for us, sure, gas is cheaper, but there’s just something beautiful about that blue flame.