Province imposes greater financial burden on N.B. Power than carbon costs do, evidence shows
CBC
The New Brunswick government is blaming federal carbon pricing for deepening the financial troubles at N.B. Power but the utility itself has recently debunked that claim.
The utility has also supplied evidence to the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board showing that fees and charges imposed on it by the provincial government are by far a heavier financial burden.
"They pay a significant amount of revenue to the province," said New Brunswick public intervener Alain Chaisson.
Chiasson has been probing the issue of N.B. Power costs in pre-hearing questions he has been submitting in advance of an upcoming rate hearing.
Electricity prices for the utility's residential customers are set to jump 13.8 per cent on April 1, pending a full hearing by the Energy and Utilities Board in May.
The April 1 jump includes a 9.8 per cent increase in rates, a three per cent surcharge to recover previous over-expenditures and the expiry of a one per cent rebate on bills that has been in place for the last 12 months.
Those three increases have triggered political controversy over who is to blame and what, if anything, should be done.
On Wednesday in question period, Natural Resources and Energy Development Minister Mike Holland made his case that federal carbon charges are largely responsible.
"Let's muse a little bit about what provincial power bills would look like if N.B. Power weren't hit with a crushing $110-million worth of extra fuel costs directly connected to the carbon tax that the federal government supplied," said Holland.
"When we see carbon taxes put hundreds of millions of dollars worth of extra costs on our public utility, we know that New Brunswickers are going to suffer."
It is not clear what figures Holland was quoting from in making those comments and on Thursday his department did not respond to a question asking for clarification about why numbers he used about carbon charges facing N.B. Power differ significantly from those published by the utility.
This year N.B. Power estimates it will pay $16.8 million in carbon charges mandated by the federal government.
Every one per cent increase in N.B. Power rates is worth about $18 million.
However, in an appearance in front of the legislature's Crown corporations committee last month, Brad Coady, N.B. Power's vice-president of business development, told MLAs carbon charges are not a significant issue for the utility because everything collected is rebated to N.B. Power to finance its energy efficiency projects.
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