NB Power rate hike can't be revoked: Keir

[B]Public intervener says laws must be reformed to end policy 'vacuum'[/B]

[IMG]http://www.cbc.ca/gfx/images/news/topstories/2010/07/15/tp-nb-keir-nbpower.jpg[/IMG]

Energy Minister Jack Keir, speaking to reporters on Thursday, said the provincial government cannot cancel NB Power's rate increase.

Energy Minister Jack Keir is ruling out a rollback of NB Power's recent three-per-cent rate hike, blaming constraints imposed on the existing legislation.

Keir said the laws that set out rules governing NB Power and the Energy and Utilities Board prevents the provincial government from rolling back any hike of three per cent or less.

Keir is vowing to rewrite those laws if the Liberals are re-elected in the Sept. 27 election.

"If NB Power asks for a three-per-cent rate increase or less, they get it. So we can't roll back something that law says they can have," Keir said.

Keir had asked the regulatory board to investigate whether NB Power needed the recent rate hike even though the Crown corporation was justified in upping their prices without EUB's approval.

The Energy and Utilities Board said on Monday that it did not have sufficient evidence to determine if the NB Power rate increase was justified.

It said the corporate structure of the utility prevented it from getting the information it needed to make that decision.

The Opposition Progressive Conservatives say that means government should nix the rate hike that was imposed on June 1.

[B]Policy vacuum[/B]


The energy minister's insistence the Liberal government cannot revoke the power rate increase came as a surprise to the lawyer hired to defend residential ratepayers.

Daniel Theriault, who served as the public intervener during the EUB's investigation, said he was not aware the review would not result in any changes and said it's something that should be fixed.

"The Energy and Utilities Board Act seems to have a vacuum there. So that may be something that will have to be looked at, to be changed in the future" Theriault said.

The provincial government does have the authority to set policy directions for the utility's board of directors, which it appoints.

The latest example was on Thursday when Keir outlined to NB Power's board of directors that it wanted NB Power to reintegrate.

Also, Premier Shawn Graham issued a policy directive to NB Power in his 2008 state-of-the-province speech that "our government is committing that, barring unforeseen circumstances, the maximum average power rate increase for each of the next three years through 2010 will not surpass three per cent."

In 2006, the former Progressive Conservative government issued policy directions to NB Power on a range of issues, such as ending performance bonuses and a remote-metering project.