Unexpected surge in N.B. Power revenues draws attention at rate hearing
CBC
Evidence that N.B. Power may be having a better financial year than expected when it first proposed imposing a pair of large rate increases on customers has participants at its ongoing rate hearing asking whether that offers an opportunity to reduce the amounts.
But the utility is pushing back against that idea, arguing it should be allowed to keep any surge in income over and above what it originally budgeted for.
"We're not recommending any updates to the evidence as a result of changes since the filing," N.B. Power's chief financial officer Darren Murphy told public intervener Alain Chiasson on Tuesday, about the possibility amounts being earned on electricity sales may be better than expected.
If the windfall is to be considered, Murphy has argued, N.B. Power should be allowed to keep the money to shore up its finances, or at least have unbudgeted expenses recalculated to balance out the new revenues.
"If the board decides that updates are required, then we propose it be done in a more comprehensive way," he said.
N.B. Power has applied to raise rates by an average of 9.25 per cent per year over the next two years, including 9.8 per cent on residential and industrial customers.
However, updated modelling done by N.B. Power, after it submitted its rate application in December, showed margins it is likely to earn on electricity sales have improved by $36.7 million this year and $37.7 million next year.
Multiple parties at the utility's ongoing rate hearings have been asking about those amounts, suggesting they are significant enough to reduce the size of rate increases N.B. Power needs.
"So $37 million a year equates to something over two per cent," noted J.D. Irving lawyer Glenn Zacher about the unbudgeted revenue.
"So that would be a two-per-cent credit against what would otherwise be a 9.25 per cent increase."
Murphy acknowledged that amount of money could potentially be used to reduce a rate increase, but argued against it.
"That is not what we are recommending, but the math is right," said Murphy.
Pressed further on the issue by Ryan Burgoyne, a lawyer for New Brunswick's municipal utilities, Murphy said it is N.B. Power's preference that it be allowed to keep the first $40 million in any unbudgeted revenue that appears.
The utility is already planning for $64 million in net earnings this coming year but Murphy said it would like the number to be allowed to go substantially higher before it is made to divert any new money to reducing its rate increase.
With the B.C. NDP and B.C. Conservatives neck and neck heading into election day on Saturday, there are also a record number of Independent candidates who — if voted in — could hold the balance of power in a minority government scenario. British Columbians have only elected one Independent MLA in the last 60 years. Vicki Huntington won a seat in 2009 and was re-elected in 2013. But University of the Fraser Valley political scientist Hamish Telford said the situation could be different this election cycle. Of the 40 Independent candidates running, six of them are incumbent MLAs, who carry the benefit of name recognition in their community. "So we've got Independents in this election who I think we could deem to be viable shots at actually winning a riding, which is not normal," Telford said. "They're still long shots, but they are certainly plausible candidates."
Though Bill C-282 has received cross-party federal support in Ottawa, Alberta's provincial government says it's not a backer of the Bloc Québécois legislation that aims to prevent Canada's supply-managed sectors — dairy, poultry and eggs — from being included in future international trade negotiations.
A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder and 15 others are facing criminal charges for allegedly running a drug-trafficking operation that shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to Canada and used violence — including murder — to achieve the group's goals, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Thursday.