{"id":927784,"date":"2026-10-10T13:02:15","date_gmt":"2026-10-10T13:02:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/927784\/"},"modified":"2026-10-10T13:02:15","modified_gmt":"2026-10-10T13:02:15","slug":"n-b-power-leaders-face-tough-questions-on-rate-hikes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/927784\/","title":{"rendered":"N.B. Power leaders face tough questions on rate hikes"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Text<\/p>\n

Listen to this article<\/p>\n

Estimated 3 minutes<\/p>\n

The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology. Mispronunciations can occur. We are working with our partners to continually review and improve the results.<\/p>\n

N.B. Power executives got an earful on Friday over their planned power-rate increases over the next three years.<\/p>\n

The utility has applied for 5.5 per cent increases in each of the next three years, for a total increase of 17.4 per cent over that period.<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI could not believe it,\u201d Progressive Conservative MLA Kris Austin told CEO Lori Clark during a meeting of the legislature\u2019s public accounts committee.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s out of control. \u2026 My phone hasn\u2019t stopped, frankly.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Austin told Clark he was disappointed that her openin<\/p>\n

WATCH | \u2018There are challenges\u2019: Utility\u2019s CEO takes heat for rate hike:\"\"<\/p>\n

N.B. Power execs get an earful over rate increases<\/p>\n

MLAs tell N.B. Power executives their constituents are angry about the planned 17.4 per cent increase on bills.<\/p>\n

Clark repeated her now familiar message that a series of politically motivated rate freezes and caps by previous governments going back almost two decades deprived N.B. Power of the money it needed to maintain its generating assets.<\/p>\n

With growing electricity demand and rising population numbers, that costly maintenance can no longer be avoided, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cLooking back at it collectively now, we can see the impact that it\u2019s had,” Clark said. “It was \u2018we can do that later, we can do that later, we can do that later.\u2019 Well, later is here.”<\/p>\n

\"Head<\/p>\n

Progressive Conservative MLA Kris Austin said N.B. Power rate increases are “out of control.” (Chad Ingraham\/CBC)<\/p>\n

The three-year rate increase must be approved by the Energy and Utilities Board.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Chief financial officer Justin Urquhart said about one-third of the increase is due to the cost of complying with federal rules ending coal as a generation source by 2030.<\/p>\n

Another one-third is to mitigate future increases to N.B. Power\u2019s $6 billion debt, and the remainder is to cover other costs.<\/p>\n

Even if the rate hikes are approved, \u201cthere is no debt reduction for N.B. Power in the foreseeable future,\u201d Urquhart said.<\/p>\n

Liberal MLAs reminded reporters of the rebate the Susan Holt government put in place early in its mandate for the 10 per cent provincial sales tax on power bills.<\/p>\n

\"David<\/p>\n

Green Party Leader David Coon called for new leadership at N.B. Power. (CBC News)<\/p>\n

Following CBC News reporting that high-income households with high power bills were getting the most benefit from that program, Energy Minister Ren\u00e9 Legacy said he might replace it with another measure targeting low-income households.<\/p>\n

Dieppe Liberal MLA Natacha Vautour said Friday she hasn\u2019t heard any updates on that idea.<\/p>\n

Green Leader David Coon called for new leadership at N.B. Power made up of executives who haven\u2019t spent their careers at the utility like Clark has and who have new ideas.<\/p>\n

Austin said that even after hours of questions and answers he wasn\u2019t satisfied.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not good. I don\u2019t feel any better now than when I went into committee, and New Brunswickers, ratepayers, are ultimately the victims of this.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":927785,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[45,49,48],"class_list":["post-927784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-business","tag-ca","tag-canada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=927784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/927784\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/927785"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=927784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=927784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=927784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}