An Ice storm slammed Canada’s two most populous provinces, prior to a holiday weekend, leaving more than a million without power on Thursday.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau offered to provide federal assistance if required.
Addressing reporters he said this was an extremely challenging time.
“The power being out for so many people, the trees coming down, harming buildings and cars and cetera, is of course an ongoing concern.
“Seeing all these beautiful trees down, seeing lives disrupted, seeing similar challenges … (it) will be a difficult Easter weekend for a number of families,” Trudeau said.
Just under a million people did not have power in Quebec and about 110,000 in Ontario as of 4 p.m. (2000 GMT), according to Poweroutage.com.
The two provinces account for more than half of Canada’s total population of about 39 million.
Outages combined for both provinces had crossed 1.3 million earlier in the day.
Electricity providers in both provinces were working to restore power, but repairs were expected to continue for days, meaning many Canadians could spend Easter weekend in the dark.
Hydro-Quebec was hoping to restore power for about 70% of customers by Friday midnight, an executive at the utility said in a televised briefing.
Regis Tellier, vice president of operations and maintenance at Hydro-Quebec, said: “Unfortunately, it is the beginning of a long weekend and some areas are more complex that we will not be able to reconnect immediately.”
In the city of Ottawa, crews were expected to restore power for a large portion of some 65,000 affected customers by noon, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe said.
