Ice storm: Grocery stores in Montreal, Laval can remain open despite Easter holiday
Posted April 8, 2023 1:55 pm.
Last Updated April 8, 2023 6:23 pm.
Quebecers in areas affected by power outages will be able to pick up groceries on Sunday.
Quebec Energy Minister Pierre Fitzgibbon says grocery stores in affected regions could remain open despite the Easter holiday.
“Obviously one of the issues (is) people are unable to keep food in their fridge, so we are allowing on an exception basis tomorrow (Sunday) six regions that all food stores will be open,” Fitzgibbon said.
Those regions are Montreal, Monteregie, Laval, Outaouais, Laurentides and Lanaudiere.
“We have to be resilient,” Fitzgibbon said. “As explained, the last 20 per cent, 10 per cent of people who lost their power, it’s going to take a little bit more time.”
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Nearly 230,000 customers are still in the dark three days after freezing rain sent icy branches crashing down onto power lines, streets and cars.
The storm is being blamed for three deaths.
Montreal’s health authority said dozens of people suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning Friday after using outdoor appliances inside during the blackout.
Lyse St-Germain, a resident of Montreal’s Ahuntsic-Cartierville borough, couldn’t wait until Sunday to shop. She spent part of Saturday replenishing the “hundreds of dollars” worth of groceries that went bad during the more than 48 hours she spent in the dark.
“I’ve lost everything,” she said in an interview outside a Maxi grocery store near her home.
St-Germain said she lost power around 4 p.m. on Wednesday and only saw it restored on Saturday around noon.
“I had just bought a bunch of meat from Costco. My freezer was full. We had to eat at restaurants a couple of times these last few days, and it’s very expensive with the current inflation,” she said.
Her apartment was so cold that she considered booking a hotel room but decided against it because the prices were too “outrageous.”
Grocery shopping was also on the agenda for Mildred Clement, who spent the past two days at her son’s home along with her 89-year-old mother.
Clement, who lives in Montreal’s hard-hit Rosemont—La Petite-Patrie borough, had her power restored on Friday _ too late to salvage most groceries.
“We brought as much food with us as we could, but we could not bring everything. We lost a lot of the food in our freezer. And we tried to cook as much meat as possible at my son’s. My elderly mother lost everything she had in her freezer. I think that everyone is exhausted,” she said.
