Bill 69: Quebec passes energy bill under closure

Energy Minister Christine Fréchette during question period at the National Assembly on June 5, 2025. (Jacques Boissinot/The Canadian Press)

The Legault government’s Bill 69 on energy was passed under closure early Saturday morning after several hours of fast-track debate. Several elected officials spent the night at the National Assembly, and an electronic vote was requested shortly after 4:30 a.m. on Saturday.

There were 67 votes in favour, 32 against, and no abstentions.

For several days now, the government has been laying the groundwork for the adoption, invoking closure for the bill, which aims to give Hydro-Québec free rein to increase its electricity production. Investments of nearly $200 billion are planned between now and 2035.

The goal is to double electricity production in order to decarbonize Quebec.

Energy Minister Christine Fréchette argued that its rapid adoption will save $6 billion on the wind energy strategy, estimated at $30 billion.

Premier François Legault has promised the creation of “good jobs” if the bill is passed before the summer.

However, the opposition parties are highly critical of the bill, considering it poorly drafted.

Interim Liberal leader Marc Tanguay strongly denounced the bill.

“They have passed, under gag order, a bad bill that is poorly drafted and will result in Hydro-Québec passing the bill on to our SMEs, among others,” he told journalists around 5 a.m. on Saturday.

The Parti Québécois (PQ) and Québec Solidaire (QS) parties have even called for the bill to be withdrawn altogether.

Strong criticism

Pascal Paradis, PQ spokesperson on energy issues, believes “the government was in a hurry to pass the bill on to consumers” and called out a form of privatization that attacks the legacy left by former premier René Lévesque.

“What’s unfortunate is that it happened in the middle of the night, while Quebecers were asleep,” Paradis said early on Saturday.

QS energy spokesperson Haroun Bouazzi fears that the bill, which was passed under closure, could increase the risk of conflicts of interest and even corruption by allowing the energy board and calls for tenders to be bypassed.

“This bill opens the door to possible abuse of power by a future energy minister who will decide which of his friends will have access to energy blocks, which of his friends will be able to sell energy blocks to Hydro-Québec, without any tendering process, without any public criteria, without any appeal procedure,” he said at a news conference early Saturday.

“This is a way the [Coalition Avenir Québec] has found to compensate for its historic deficit,” criticized QS co-spokesperson Ruba Ghazal.

Two weeks ago, Fréchette tabled 52 amendments to modify her bill.

‘150 hours’

The government accused the opposition of obstructing the legislative process.

“After more than 150 hours of special consultations and detailed study, the repeated obstruction of the opposition parties has allowed only one-third of the bill’s articles to be adopted. If work continued at this pace, the bill would still not be adopted by this time next year,” Fréchette wrote on social media on Friday.

The bill also aims to uphold the government’s promise to limit residential electricity rate increases to a maximum of 3 per cent.

It will allow private companies to sell electricity to each other and aims to simplify partnerships with Indigenous communities.

The bill also limits the power of the Régie de l’énergie (energy board).

Closure is “a parliamentary procedure used by the government to limit the time spent debating a motion or bill and to speed up its adoption,” according to the National Assembly’s website.

A laborious process

Bill 69 was introduced in June 2024 by Super Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon, before he resigned a few months later. Fréchette took over, but the legislative process for the bill has been an arduous one.

In December 2024, the minister cited Donald Trump and his threats of tariffs to justify the delays in moving the bill forward.

Last February, the Liberal opposition delayed consideration of the bill, also citing the American president.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on June 6, 2025.

By Thomas Laberge with files Aurélie Lachapelle, The Canadian Press