Thousands in western Quebec could be without power all weekend

Hydro Quebec said that roughly 300,000 residents were still without power Saturday morning following Wednesday's ice storm.

The hydro company expects that number to drop to 100,000 by Sunday night.

But many residents in the Pontiac region of Quebec aren't holding their breath, and instead preparing for days more without power.

Jodi Thompson lives and operates a sugar shack in Bristol. She's going on three days now without electricity.

"We've just been surviving really," Thompson tells CTV News.

"Cleaning off the debris from the road just to be able to get in and out. We are literally down to our last bit of power for operating the fridges and freezers and keeping our business afloat."

Thompson says her family spent money to buy an extra generator and are missing out on thousands in revenue after having to close their sugar shack over the Easter long weekend.

As of midday Saturday, between 35 to 40 per cent of the Pontiac was still without electricity.

Warden Jane Toller says her region was the worst hit area of the Outaouais.

"All 18 municipalities - I haven't seen that as long as I've lived here."

Toller says she personally had to step in Thursday when the hospital in Shawville began running on generators and cancelling non-critical surgeries.

She also advocated for one of the grocery stores in Shawville to be moved up the priority list, which had power come back on Friday night.

Most of Shawville's power has now been restored.

"A lot more will be reconnected Saturday and also Sunday," says Toller.

"There will be a few that have to wait until Monday and those are the areas of the Pontiac that are harder to get to."

Some Pontiac residents are anticipating being in the dark for upwards of a week - the longest stretch without power since the ice storm of 1998.

"We haven't even seen a truck; we haven't seen or heard of anything," says Thompson "[Hydro Quebec] keeps telling us to be patient because there's several thousand people without power."

Toller says once storm clean up and power restoration has finished, she will be looking to hold discussions with Hydro Quebec on increasing the workforce in rural areas.

"This is where I think they need to be open to bringing in private companies to help," says the warden.

"In my opinion it is just unacceptable to leave any municipality with no power."