Robert A. Boyd

Who was Robert A. Boyd?

Robert A. Boyd, CM, OQ was a Canadian electric engineer and utility executive. He successfully led the construction of first phase of the James Bay hydroelectric project, a large dam complex built in northern Quebec by Hydro-Québec during the 1970s and early 1980s.

Born in Sherbrooke in the Eastern Townships in a working-class family to a Scot-Irish father and a French Canadian mother, Boyd enrolled at Montreal's École Polytechnique, where he graduated in 1943. Soon after, he joined the ranks of the newly created provincially owned utility Hydro-Québec, as the first French-speaking engineer ever hired by the company. He spent his 37-year career in different positions, reaching the top job in 1977.

In 1972, Quebec Premier Robert Bourassa asked Boyd to take the helm of the Société d'énergie de la Baie James, a Crown corporation tasked with the construction of the first phase of what was then called Le projet du siècle, a network of dams, reservoirs and three giant hydroelectric generating stations located in a remote area 1,000 kilometres north of Montreal. Stretching for 700 kilometres east of James Bay along the course ot the La Grande River, the 10,000-MW public works project presented massive logistical challenges to the builders: roads and airstrips had to be built and towns for the 18,000 workers had to be set up deep into the Quebec hinterland.