Hydro-Québec’s Power Scare, Air Transat Strike Deal and Ottawa’s Remote‑Work Pivot: What Canadians Need to Know on December 10, 2025

Key points at a glance

Hydro-Québec quietly triggered two “power failure alerts” on December 3 and 5 as an early cold snap pushed electricity demand close to the limits of the grid, forcing the utility to consider—but not implement—rolling blackouts. ^[1]
Hydro-Québec now insists there is no real risk of running out of hydroelectricity, saying the alerts are a normal grid‑management tool and that the situation is “under control,” even as critics talk of a “catastrophe.” ^[2]
Air Transat has averted a pilots’ strike after days of cancelled flights, reaching a tentative agreement with the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA); operations are “returning to normal,” though many travellers are still dealing with disrupted holiday plans. ^[3]
In Ottawa, Prime Minister Mark Carney says a back‑to‑office plan for federal public servants will come into “sharper view” in the coming weeks, stoking anxiety among unions that fear an eventual five‑day‑a‑week return to the office. ^[4]
Talk‑radio hosts in Quebec are linking all three stories, asking whether Quebecers are ready to pay more for electricity, whether travellers can trust airlines, and what a tougher telework stance will mean for workers and downtowns. ^[5]

Hydro-Québec’s near‑miss with rolling blackouts

What happened on December 3 and 5

Radio‑Canada revealed this week that Hydro‑Québec issued two internal “alertes de défaillance de puissance” (power‑deficiency alerts) on December 3 and 5 because it feared being unable to supply electricity to all customers at peak times. ^[6]

According to internal sources quoted in that reporting and widely relayed on social media and talk radio, the utility came very close to moving from a level‑2 alert to level‑3, which would have meant délestage—planned, rotating power cuts in certain sectors to avoid a wider system collapse. ^[7]

On Montreal’s 98.5 FM, commentator Luc Ferrandez called the situation “a catastrophe, a big catastrophe,” arguing that a province that styles itself as a global hydroelectricity powerhouse should not be flirting with rolling blackouts twice in three days at the very start of winter. ^[8]

Record demand, thin margins

Hydro‑Québec’s own spokespeople acknowledge just how tight things got.

In interviews with Cogeco Media stations, Lyne St‑Laurent and Cendrix Bouchard explained that demand during the cold snap climbed above 39,000 megawatts, compared with a historical early‑December average of about 30,000 MW and a previous December peak around 36,000 MW. ^[9]
The grid was also dealing with ongoing maintenance on generating equipment until around mid‑December, temporarily reducing available capacity and leaving “power balances a bit tighter” than last year. ^[10]

Hydro‑Québec says it dipped into a special reserve equivalent to the entire Romaine hydro complex—around 1,500 MW— to get through the peaks. ^[11]

Maxime Nadeau, the senior director responsible for system operations, told 98.5 FM that while the utility did consider load shedding, “we still had several tools left before getting there,” emphasizing that the alerts signaled heavy use of reserves rather than outright panic. ^[12]

“We’re not running out of electricity,” says Hydro‑Québec

In a widely syndicated piece from La Presse Canadienne, published in outlets including Le Manic and MaBeauce, Hydro‑Québec sought to calm fears with a clear message:

There is no real risk of a shortage of hydroelectric energy—reservoir levels and energy resources remain ample.
The problem is instantaneous capacity: the ability to deliver enough power to everyone at the same time during extreme cold snaps. ^[13]

Bouchard stressed that “power failure alerts” are part of normal grid vocabulary, used to coordinate operations and power balances, and “shouldn’t be interpreted as alarmist” in themselves. ^[14]

Still, the utility is asking Quebecers to help:

Residential heating accounts for about 50% of household electricity use in the province. ^[15]
Lowering thermostats by just 1°C can shave roughly 5% off winter heating bills, especially when combined with smart‑home tools like Hydro‑Québec’s Hilo demand‑response program. ^[16]

Political backlash: “How did we get this fragile?”

The near‑miss has quickly become political. On talk shows, commentators such as Jonathan Trudeau and Jérôme Landry asked whether Quebec will soon have to cut power to industrial customers or entire neighbourhoods to keep the lights on at home. ^[17]

Their questions echo a growing chorus of critics, including opposition politicians from the Parti Québécois, who are demanding “clear answers on the real capacity of the grid and Hydro‑Québec’s transparency” after the December alerts. ^[18]

At the same time, Premier François Legault’s government is pushing major industrial and data‑centre projects and encouraging the electrification of transport, from electric vehicles to public transit—trends that will only increase peak demand. ^[19]

On his December 10 morning review, host Paul Arcand framed the debate bluntly: Quebecers love cheap and clean electricity, but “are you ready to pay more for it?”—a question that lands differently when the grid has just flirted with rolling blackouts and temperatures are set to plunge again. ^[20]

Air Transat: from mass flight cancellations to a last‑minute truce

Days of uncertainty after pilots issue strike notice

While Hydro‑Québec was managing its crisis on the ground, Air Transat customers were facing a different kind of uncertainty in the air.

On December 7, after the Air Line Pilots Association (ALPA) served a 72‑hour strike notice, Air Transat announced it would progressively cancel flights starting December 8, with a full stop of operations if no agreement was reached by December 9. ^[21]

Industry outlet Pax Nouvelles reported a second wave of cancellations for flights scheduled “today and tomorrow,” and the airline began arranging early returns for some passengers, creating chaos for winter‑sun travellers and those visiting family ahead of the holidays. ^[22]

On Quebec talk radio, Arcand’s December 9 review highlighted “Air Transat annule des vols” as one of the stories of the day, alongside Hydro‑Québec’s grid scare and the looming clarifications on telework. ^[23]

A tentative deal—and a big pay jump

By late on December 9, the tone shifted dramatically.

Air Transat posted an “End of Strike Threat – Tentative Agreement Reached” banner on its website, saying it had reached a deal with ALPA on a new collective agreement and that operations were “returning to normal.” ^[24]
Pax Nouvelles reported that the tentative agreement removes the risk of a strike, quoting both the company and the union, and that the deal will now be submitted to pilots for ratification. ^[25]

According to Reuters, the agreement comes after negotiations in which the company had offered pilots a 59% pay increase over five years, part of a broader effort by Canadian airlines to keep cockpit talent in an era of global pilot shortages. ^[26]

In a statement carried by Pax Nouvelles, CEO Annick Guérard acknowledged the disruption caused by the labour dispute and offered “our sincerest apologies to customers whose flights were affected in recent days,” adding that the priority now is to restore operations quickly. ^[27]

Arcand’s December 10 show summed up the mood in Quebec with a simple line: “C’est réglé chez Air Transat”—it’s settled at Air Transat—before moving on to the next worry: electricity prices. ^[28]

What this means for travellers now

For passengers, the news is welcome but not yet a complete return to normal:

Air Transat says operations are ramping back up, but it may take several days for schedules to fully stabilize, especially on heavily booked winter routes. ^[29]
Customers whose flights were cancelled during the strike threat period should monitor their “Manage My Booking” page and emails for rebooking options or refunds. ^[30]

The episode is another reminder that Canada’s aviation landscape remains fragile, with labour tensions, tight capacity and winter weather all colliding just as demand for travel returns to record levels. ^[31]

Ottawa’s telework pivot: remote work rules set to tighten

From leaked scenarios to union alarm

Well before Carney’s latest comments, federal public servants were already on edge.

On December 1, Quebec radio host Paul Arcand discussed an internal Treasury Board document suggesting a scenario where:

All executive‑level federal employees would return to the office five days a week by January 2026;
Non‑executive staff would move to four days a week by July 2026;
And everyone would be back on‑site full‑time by January 1, 2027. ^[32]

Those details, combined with a broader government push to cut public‑sector jobs and office space, triggered an immediate backlash from unions.

On December 2, The Hill Times reported that federal public service unions were demanding answers, arguing that the “volume and specificity” of full‑time return‑to‑office rumours “warrant immediate clarity from Treasury Board.” Treasury Board president Shafqat Ali, however, insisted he was unaware of any such plan. ^[33]

The Union of Taxation Employees (UTE), part of the Public Service Alliance of Canada, went further in a sharply worded statement:

A full‑time in‑office mandate would be “unrealistic, irresponsible and disrespectful”, the union said.
It would require billions in new spending on buildings and leases, worsen traffic and emissions in major cities, and shred work‑life balance for employees who moved away from downtown cores during the pandemic. ^[34]

UTE reminded members that telework was a central issue in the last round of bargaining and remains a key demand in current negotiations: for many, the ability to work remotely is now non‑negotiable. ^[35]

Carney: a plan is coming into “sharper view”

Against that backdrop, Prime Minister Mark Carney confirmed on December 8 that a new back‑to‑office framework is coming.

Speaking at an Ottawa Board of Trade event, Carney said his government’s plan to have public servants spend more time in the office would come into “sharper view over the next several weeks” and promised to “engage with public sector unions on the modalities” of the policy. ^[36]

Key points from the Canadian Press report, published by outlets such as CityNews and the Winnipeg Free Press:

In‑office expectations will vary by role and seniority—Carney suggested executives will likely have higher on‑site requirements. ^[37]
A Treasury Board Secretariat document seen by reporters outlined a possible path toward five days a week in the office for all employees by 2027, though the government has not confirmed that this scenario will be adopted. ^[38]
For now, the current rule—three days a week in‑office for most public servants, four days for executives—remains unchanged; it has been in place since September 2024. ^[39]

Some Liberal MPs, like Bruce Fanjoy and Greg Fergus, are publicly urging flexibility, arguing that remote work helps retain talent, cut emissions and support rural employees who can’t easily commute downtown. ^[40]

Telework clarifications “coming soon”

On Quebec radio, Carney’s remarks are being boiled down to a simple headline: “Télétravail: le premier ministre Mark Carney promet des clarifications sous peu.” Arcand has been returning to the topic for weeks, linking it to broader questions about the future of work, downtown revitalization and public‑service cuts. ^[41]

For the hundreds of thousands of Canadian public servants who reorganized their lives around hybrid work, those “clarifications” could mean anything from minor tweaks to a near‑full reversal of the post‑pandemic telework gains.

One story, three fronts: reliability, costs and trust

Taken together, today’s updates on Hydro‑Québec, Air Transat and Ottawa’s telework policy sketch a bigger picture about reliability and trust in essential systems.

Energy reliability vs. electrification goals
- Quebec wants to electrify almost everything—from cars to heavy industry—yet its grid has already had to fire off rare power‑deficiency alerts before winter officially begins. ^[42]
- Hydro‑Québec insists the situation is under control, but it is clearly operating with thinner safety margins during extreme cold. That raises tough questions about how fast the province can add new, power‑hungry projects without accelerating grid upgrades and demand‑management programs. ^[43]
Travel reliability in a tight labour market
- Air Transat’s brush with a shutdown shows how a single labour dispute can ripple through the entire travel ecosystem, especially when airlines are already running close to capacity. ^[44]
- The tentative deal and large pay increases for pilots underscore a broader reality: keeping critical workers on board is getting more expensive, whether they’re flying planes or operating power grids. ^[45]
Workplace predictability for public servants
- For federal employees, rumours of a five‑day‑a‑week office return feel like a reversal of the pandemic‑era bargain that made remote work mainstream.
- Carney’s promise to consult unions suggests the government knows it must balance productivity, downtown recovery and employee well‑being, but the leaked scenarios show just how far some officials are willing to go in pulling people back to their cubicles. ^[46]

Across all three fronts, the public is being asked to adapt: turn down the thermostat, accept last‑minute flight changes, rethink work routines. In return, citizens are asking for something simple but powerful: clear communication, realistic planning and systems that don’t crack under predictable stress.

What to watch in the coming weeks

Hydro‑Québec’s winter performance
- Will future cold snaps trigger more level‑2 alerts—or even actual délestage? Expect closer scrutiny of Hydro‑Québec’s peak‑demand tools, including dynamic pricing and programs like Hilo. ^[47]
Ratification of the Air Transat pilots’ deal
- The tentative agreement still needs to be ratified by pilots. A rejected deal could quickly bring strike threats back onto the radar, though both sides have strong incentives to avoid another showdown. ^[48]
Details of Ottawa’s back‑to‑office framework
- Treasury Board and the Prime Minister’s Office will now have to put specifics behind Carney’s pledge. Unions have signalled they’re ready to fight any plan that looks like a stealth end to remote work. ^[49]

On December 10, 2025, the threads of power, mobility and work are tightly intertwined. How governments, utilities and companies manage these pressures will shape not just this winter—but the way Canadians live and work for years to come.