NB Power says it is enacting a moratorium on winter disconnections of electricity for vulnerable populations in the province.
On Friday, the utility’s president, Lori Clark, told reporters disconnection is a “last resort.”
“We have developed some criteria that we will want to enforce to make sure that we are helping customers manage their bills and not leaving customers in the springtime of the year with very large arrears,” Clark said.
It comes amid rising electricity rates, including a request before the Energies and Utilities Board for a rate hike of 4.75 per cent on April 1, 2026.
NB Power officials said individuals 70 and older, those with medical issues that require electricity, and those with a combined household income of $70,000 or less would be considered vulnerable under the moratorium.
This was established through the Vulnerable Populations Committee, which was established in March 2025. Randy Hatfield, the executive director of the Human Development Council, said that about 1,000 customers were disconnected last winter due to non-payment.
Customers will still have to pay some toward their bills to avoid disconnection.
“This doesn’t address the issue of affordability generally, but it deals properly with the consequence that flows from the affordability crisis in New Brunswick,” Hatfield said, speaking to reporters Friday.
He said this option was favourable to the utility and the committee.
“In the past, I would say there have been payment arrangements that some of our customers struggled with maintaining,” Clark said. “So, we’ll be working with our contact center to ensure that the payment arrangements that we put in place are ones that customers can afford, and they may not be nearly as high as they have been in the past.”
The “interim moratorium” only differs slightly from the current disconnection policy, which states that disconnection can happen for non-payment after 30 days.
Clark couldn’t say how many customers fall within the criteria identified under the moratorium.
“We’re not focused on the numbers,” she said. “We were focused on helping New Brunswickers. So again, another reason for us to look at this as a pilot and understand some of the learnings that will come out of this in the period that we’re evaluating.”
About 25 per cent of New Brunswick’s population is considered 65 years and older, according to the 2021 New Brunswick Census. Data from Statistics Canada in 2020 showed 168,860 households had a pre-tax income of $70,000.
Clark said customers will be dealing with service agents to identify programs that could help them they might not be aware of, including the equalized billing program and the energy efficiency program.
She couldn’t say how many times customers would be contacted or by what methods they might be contacted to ensure their bills are paid.
“As I said earlier, disconnecting is always a last resort, but we do want to maintain communication with customers through this process and avoid disconnects during this period,” she said.
Both Hatfield and Clark said any arrears have to be dealt with at some point, so it is about ensuring those don’t become unmanageable.
“We will continue to work with customers to avoid [disconnection], and obviously, with the most vulnerable customer group, we will not be disconnecting those customers during the winter periods,” Clark said.
