Advocates call for energy-poverty strategy as N.B. Power rates increase

A small group of protesters gathered outside N.B. Power's headquarters in downtown Fredericton on Tuesday, reciting poems and waving signs, calling for the April 1 hike to power bills to be put on hold.

Nichola Taylor, provincial co-ordinator for the advocacy group ACORN, said the 9.6 per cent increase in residential rates is more than the province's most vulnerable can bear. 

"We just cannot afford it. We cannot afford these high energy rates," she said. 

"It's at the cost of low- to moderate-income people who are really struggling right now with high grocery prices and the increases in rent."

Rates have shot up by about 30 per cent over the last three years as N.B. Power has struggled to balance its budget and meet government-mandated debt reduction targets

N.B. Power CEO Lori Clark has assured lawmakers and the public that the utility has been trying to trim its expenses, but that ultimately, the only way it can increase the revenue necessary to meet its operational obligations is to increase rates. 

"The challenges that the utility has with debt today, we cannot cut our way out of," Clark told a legislative committee in February.

"Cutting our way out of those challenges will result in us not being able to operate our system, not be able to maintain our assets, not be able to do vegetation management."

Tuesday's rate increase is expected to generate between $160 million and $170 million in revenue this year. The most recent quarterly results available show an operating loss of $12 million.

A spike in consumption over the winter increased scrutiny on N.B. Power and spurred the government to order an external audit of the billing system, which is expected to be released this month. 

The government fulfilled an election promise in January with a 10 per cent rebate on bills for residential customers, but complaints over high energy costs have persisted. 

And advocates want to see a comprehensive energy poverty strategy put into place. 

"The government has to step in," Taylor said. "They need to help out people."

Premier Susan Holt told reporters last week that the government did look into stopping Tuesday's rate hike, but couldn't find a mechanism to do so. 

She said the government is planning a public review process of the utility with the goal of finding a sustainable path forward. 

"We want to be able to pay our power bills, we want to be able to develop out industry, we want to do so in a way that's environmentally friendly, we want to do so in a way that's affordable and sustainable in the long-term," Holt said. 

"We need a solution that's acceptable to New Brunswickers."

Herb Emery, the Vaughan chair in regional economics at the University of New Brunswick, told CBC News there aren't any easy answers to the challenges faced by the utility. 

"In the short run, N.B. Power has to operate and price to meet the requirements they have under legislation," he said in an email.  

"On the other side, all [the government] can do is do some sort of rebate or cash transfer to relieve households and businesses." 

In the meantime, Taylor said those in the province who are struggling will be worse off today than they were the day before. 

"It's just not good enough, and it needs to stop today," she said.