Home > LOCAL NEWS > Larger inquiry needed into NB Power, whose bills have skyrocketed: prof

Larger inquiry needed into NB Power, whose bills have skyrocketed: prof

By John Chilibeck, The Daily Gleaner, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

New Brunswick’s Holt Liberal government should consider a larger inquiry into NB Power if it wants to help people upset over high electricity bills, says a political observer.

Mario Levesque, a political science professor at Mount Allison University, said Premier Susan Holt was smart to quickly order NB Power last week to hire an independent party to investigate the high bills people had received in December, with hundreds of angry complaints pouring in.

But he said he doubted New Brunswickers would be satisfied with the findings – especially if their power bills remain high in future months. A bigger inquiry is needed, he said.

“The Liberals need to show that they are being considerate and concerned about people, and I think that calling the inquiry was a good idea,” Levesque said. “At the end of the day, I don’t think it will change much.”

NB Power says people’s bills went up for several reasons: December was the first very cold month that included a 12.7 per cent hike to the electricity price, approved by an independent regulator, the billing cycle was a few days longer than the cycle of other months, and the temperatures were colder at the end of 2024 than they were in December 2023.

The latest bills also came out before the Holt government’s 10 per cent rebate on electrical consumption kicked in Jan. 1.

NB Power CEO Lori Clark told Brunswick News last week the public utility had heard the public’s concerns over higher-than-expected bills, and it welcomed an impartial, independent review.

However, she said details of the review, such as the firm that would be hired and at what cost, were still being determined.

“We are committed to full transparency and will share the results publicly once available,” Clark said in a prepared statement. “Should the investigation identify any issues or recommendations, we will act immediately to address them. Our goal is to ensure that our customers have confidence in the accuracy of their bills and trust in the systems we use to serve them.”

Levesque said NB Power’s reasons for the higher bills seemed to make sense, but there was a larger issue at stake.

“At the heart of it, what underlies it all, is people have no confidence whatsoever in NB Power. Its leadership is equated to used car salespeople. People just don’t trust them. People are fed up with money being taken out of their pockets, while NB Power executives keep getting richer with salary increases, over years of continual failures to properly manage their operations.”

As an example, he cited the Point Lepreau nuclear plant near Saint John, whose refurbishment a little over a decade ago went $1 billion overbudget and whose performance is at the bottom of the nuclear industry in North America. It was out of service for most of 2024, largely due to a major repair problem.

Looming on the horizon is the revamping of the Mactaquac hydro station near Fredericton, expected to cost at least $7 billion. The plant was supposed to last 100 years but began crumbling before the half-way mark.

NB Power has also failed to reduce its $5-billion debt, despite being told to do so over the last decade.

“They can’t seem to achieve what they say they’re going to do,” Levesque said. “You could look at Lepreau, which is a colossal failure, or what we’re about to step in with Mactaquac’s renos.

People don’t have the confidence for the organization to do things on budget, on time and to do the job specified to get the performance that’s needed.

“In most businesses, if you can’t do that, you’re fired.”

Besides holding a bigger investigation that could include the province’s auditor general and an outside firm with expertise in energy, the Holt government could also demand that NB Power’s CEO hold public consultations across the province, the political scientist suggested.

“What would be good would be to have a citizens forum where the CEO of NB Power would be made to have meetings in Moncton, Fredericton, Saint John and Bathurst and, say, Grand Falls, and face the public directly, so that she can feel the wrath of the public and put the heat on their backsides to do a little better,” the Sackville academic said.

“It would allow the public to vent at them and get their frustrations out. Right now, NB Power seems to be shielded, and that’s part of the anger that fuels the public.”

Professor Tom Bateman was more forgiving.

The political scientist at St. Thomas University said the explanations from NB Power on high bills seemed to make sense. Any technical reason for a glitch that would have spiked bills should easily be answered by the independent audit, he said.

“The government responded quickly and with some sympathy for consumers without too many rash promises. I don’t criticize the government for failing to come up with a grand solution. We need to find out what the source of the high billing is for this period.”

The professor doubts anyone’s bills will go down.

“The bottom line is power is expensive and it’s expensive in winter and it’s getting more expensive in general,” he said. “We’re stuck in between a rock and a hard place.”

Bateman wasn’t impressed with the Holt government’s 10 per cent rebate on electrical consumption, which he pointed out would mostly help people who waste energy on poorly insulated houses and have inefficient electric baseboard heaters, instead of incentivizing them to change their heating habits or installing more insulation and airtight windows and doors.

“At the end of the day, the Government of New Brunswick holds the can here and its liable for NB Power’s debt. If it comes to the rescue of consumers, it will simply shift the burden to taxpayers, who are the same people.”

Most New Brunswick households still heat with electricity, making the recent price hike a big financial burden. Bateman said consumers could also take matters into their own hands by replacing their baseboards with other heating sources, such as heat pumps, geothermal systems or solar panels.

Potentially, a huge shift in demand would take some pressure off the utility to refurbish or build new generating plants.

But if too many people stopped using a lot of electricity, NB Power could also run into more financial problems.

“If people are using less NB Power, that’s still bad for NB Power because it would have massive, outdated infrastructure to maintain and fewer consumers to buy its product. So, we’re in one big problem here.”

Bateman joked about his own experience installing heat pumps in his home in 2023, which he did with the help of government programs.

He said besides shouldering the high upfront costs for installing the machines, his family is paying just as much for electricity now because they like the cooling they offer during sweltering summer months. In the winter, they turn up the thermostat more because they like the heat they generate.

“Think of showers. They were thought to save a lot of water and energy over baths. But people just take 20-minute showers now and waste as much as before.”

“The heat pumps have not saved me a dime,” he said, laughing.

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