'This adds to the stress': NB Power’s rate hike request prompts calls for action

A New Brunswick anti-poverty group says NB Power’s pitch to hike power rates by 12.8 per cent next year will push more families over the financial edge.

“We’re talking about people making hard choices,” says Janelle LeBlanc of the New Brunswick Common Front for Social Justice. “Do I buy groceries? Can I pay my rent? Can I pay my electricity bill? This adds to the stress.”

Natural Resources and Energy Development Minister Mike Holland says the provincial government won’t intervene in NB Power’s application to the Energy and Utilities Board, but says the potential for other programs are under consideration.

“As a government we need to be focused and continually talking about ways that we can do our part to bring incentives and initiatives to help folks,” said Holland. “Not necessarily with the rate, but with their bill and what’s coming out of their pocket.”

When announcing NB Power’s rate hike applications on Friday, president and CEO Lori Clark pointed to efficiency programs within the utility as a solution to customers saving money.

Green Party leader David Coon says the programs aren’t enough and leave large gaps.

“They have no programs that actually would significantly reduce the heating costs of apartment dwellers because they have no programs aimed at the property owners,” says Coon, who’s pushing for the repeal of legislation offering lower power rates to certain industrial customers.

Liberal leader Susan Holt says her party’s unsuccessful bid this past fall to eliminate the provincial HST portion on power bills should be re-evaluated by the government.

“To save 10 per cent off your power bill at a time when the rate is going up 10 plus per cent is going to be meaningful,” says Holt.

Worries about a rate hike are running alongside concerns about NB Power’s financial future.

Last week, New Brunswick’s auditor general issued a warning about the utility’s $5-billion debt load with large scale infrastructure projects approaching at Mactaquac and Belledune.

“I don’t know what the solution is for NB Power,” says LeBlanc. “I just know the government can do other things to help New Brunswickers who are really struggling right now.”

“Increasing the minimum wage, increasing social assistance rates, rent control.”

The Energy and Utilities Board will hold public hearings and make a decision about any new rate structure at NB Power by March 31, 2024.

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