A year after Fiona: Nova Scotians still fear blackouts as utility claims improvements

Some are weary of Nova Scotia Power's promises for improvement, as fall hurricane season brings lengthy power outages he feels could be avoided.

Vaughn Mullen has grown weary of Nova Scotia Power's promises for improvement, as fall hurricane season brings lengthy power outages he feels could be avoided.

The 73-year-old says he's come to expect that the lights in his rural home will go out in major storms, despite the push for change after post-tropical storm Fiona swept through Nova Scotia a year ago causing $114.5 million in damage to the province's electricity system.

"Whether it's tree trimming or pole maintenance or whatever it may be that Nova Scotia Power is supposed to be doing, it doesn't seem to be working," Mullen said Monday from Brooklyn, N.S., two days after he again lost power during post-tropical storm Lee.

When Fiona struck early on Sept. 24, it took down 3,073 electricity wires, broke 2,700 poles and damaged 44 transmission lines in Nova Scotia, drawing calls for the utility to strengthen its grid.

Earlier this year, the company was fined $750,000 for failing to meet performance standards on system reliability in 2022, and it faces a regulatory hearing on how much of the cost from Fiona damage it can pass along to ratepayers.

"I think (Nova Scotia Power) needs to speed up its response," Darlene Norman, mayor of the Region of Queens Municipality, said in a recent interview from Liverpool, N.S.

She says the utility should work more quickly on protecting power lines on lands where is has the right to cut trees. But residents also need to accept that "some of those beautiful old trees" that threaten lines on private land will have to come down.