Quebec Mulls Hydro Stake Sale

"It is a hypothesis," Landry said in an interview published in the Quebec City daily newspaper Le Soleil. He said the provincial government wanted to set up "a profit-sharing scheme for the Hydro-Quebec staff."

Landry said the Canadian province would not sell more than the 10 per cent of the utility for fiscal and legal reasons. Hydro-Quebec is a provincially-owned agency.

Hydro-Quebec and the premier's office were not immediately available to comment.

Hydro-Quebec, nationalized by the Quebec government in the early 1960s, had profits of CAN$1 billion (US$658 million) in 2001 and surpassed this amount for the first nine months of 2002.

It produces electricity in Quebec, and distributes it domestically and in the northeastern US states.