Following recent concerns from Edmundston’s mayor about an aging transmission line causing outages to much of his city, N.B. Power’s plans to work on different lines in the region were not welcome news.
Mayor Eric Marquis said N.B. Power announced plans on Monday to start upgrade work in May along transmission lines 88 and 89, which bring power across the border into the United States.
On Tuesday, the city, along with the neighbouring municipality of Haut-Madawaska, issued a press release calling N.B. Power’s decision to upgrade lines going to Maine over the aging Line 70, which brings power to the city, “a glaring injustice.”
In an interview, Marquis said the outages can last for hours and often happen during the warmest or coldest times of the year, during peak demand.
“So each and every time it happens, we know that it’s for a long time and we know it’s really problematic for our community, our businesses, our hospitals,” said Marquis, who handily won re-election in Monday night’s municipal election.
Line 70, which supplies the Edmundston area with electricity, runs parallel to transmission lines 88 and 89, which supply Maine. (Allyson Dubé/Radio-Canada)
“There is definitely some work that needs to be done to replace this line as soon as possible.”
In an interview Thursday afternoon, N.B. Power’s acting vice-president of operations, Phil Landry, said the work on the lines going to Maine is part of a larger initiative to refurbish all lines in New Brunswick.
“It’s not just an N.B. Power issue, it’s a North American issue where our infrastructure is getting somewhat, I’ll say, antiquated and needs some attention,” Landry said.
As for Line 70 to Edmundston, Landry said the utility does “need to do better.”
He said work being done on the lines to Maine “is not by any way, shape or form removing or minimizing the priority that we have put on line 70 and the work that we’re doing there.”
“Nothing has changed in terms of priority,” he said.
Landry said the latest timelines put upgrades to Line 70 as being complete by 2029, but the utility is working to expedite that. The work would include a second line going to Edmundston to provide a backup and improve reliability in that area, he said.
An N.B. Power spokesperson clarified that about 75 per cent of this new line will be along the same corridor as existing Line 70.
In northern and eastern Maine, 58,000 people rely on electricity from N.B. Power to keep their lights on and their homes warm.
They’re not connected to the large-scale regional power grid in the southern part of the state and have nowhere else to go for power.
Last year, Premier Susan Holt decided against cutting off power to Maine as a retaliation in the trade war with the United States.
Marquis said he has a meeting with N.B. Power in the coming weeks to discuss a timeline for work on Line 70, which he said has been flagged for replacement since 2005.
“So it’s an incredible injustice for us here in northwestern New Brunswick,” Marquis said.
Marquis said he also recently met with Holt about the issue of outages. Radio-Canada reported that Holt promised to speed up work on Line 70.
Asked if this is what prompted N.B. Power to expediate their timeline, Landry said the utility had already put priority on Line 70 work prior to that promise.
The City of Edmundston handles its own power distribution and also generates some of its own power with two hydro facilities. But the city relies on a connection to N.B. Power via Line 70 for the rest of its power.
The outages from Line 70 stretch outside the city, also impacting Haut-Madawaska, which covers the province’s northwest panhandle. The municipality is a new amalgamated community created through the 2023 local government reforms. It includes the villages of Saint-Hilaire, Clair, Lac Baker and Saint-François-de-Madawaska, which is home to a large poultry processing industry.
Nancy Ann Landry, mayor-elect of Haut-Madawaska, said the outages have had a negative impact on her community. (Allyson Dubé/Radio-Canada)
Haut-Madawaska mayor-elect Nancy Ann Landry, who currently serves as deputy mayor, said in an email statement in French that repeated outages from Line 70 impact local businesses, the pharmacy, a nursing home and the chicken industry.
“And we, in the Northwest, are completely ignored by this crown corporation,” Landry wrote.
Landry said the municipality was told by N.B. Power that upgrades to line 70 could take five years to complete.
“We don’t disagree with them serving Maine, quite the contrary, but our line truly needs to be upgraded, that’s the priority,” Landry said.
“These breakdowns are also the cause of disastrous economic losses for our industries and businesses, and damage the reputation of Haut-Madawaska as an investment area.”