Decades of mismanagement, extremely overpaid executives, and more levels of management than a mille-feuille dessert have left NB Power on the precipice of complete failure. Add to this a fire at the Bayside Generating Station, lower water levels at the Mactaquac hydro-electric dam this spring and once again a schedule shutdown at the Point Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station that has gone off track and will cost ratepayers close to 1 million dollars per day of the shutdown. One must wonder, will we even have power this winter? And if so, at what cost? Will anyone be able to keep the lights on?
An increase in power rates is a concern to so many, but it is especially so if you are part of the 35.3 per cent of New Brunswick residents with one or more disabilities, often living in legislated poverty when unable to work either due to the nature of the disability, the lack of accessible transit or the lack of accessible and accommodating workplaces. When you receive $918 month from the province to attempt to live on, any increase in the cost of living is extremely concerning.
The utility is asking for increases of 9.8 per cent this year, and again next year as well as increasing the monthly service charge of urban users to match that in rural communities. NB Power continues to say the increase will be around $25/month. For our community, that is $25 we do not have.
There are many ways to define energy poverty. When your power bill is more than 6 per cent of your income, you are said to be experiencing energy poverty.
A survey of members of the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities found that energy costs take an average 26 per cent of their income, from as low as 12 per cent to as high as 34 per cent. And now the utility wants to increase it even more? It seems like the bill of the mismanagement of the past decades, as well as top heavy management of the utility is falling on the shoulders of the most vulnerable in New Brunswick, low-income earners, persons with disabilities and seniors.
Why is New Brunswick the only province without a program to help those with lower incomes pay their power bills? When this was brought up yet again recently at an Energy and Utilities Board hearing, NB Power’s legal team focused on whether energy poverty is 6 per cent or 10 per cent of income, but does it matter? If one must choose to go without medications to pay more than $200 to heat a small apartment, they are paying too much.
There was then the tap dancing at the hearing around who pays, rate payers or taxpayers. Instead, why not take away the government of New Brunswick’s preferential rates, have them pay full fare like the rest of us, and put those funds towards a low-income benefit?
What many do not realize is that when our community must choose power over treatment and medications, we often end up in the hospital, and for extended visits. This, in effect, costs taxpayers thousands, and takes up beds that are in very short supply. Sometimes, one must look at the overall picture before deciding on the best course of action.
In a leap of logic, NB Power is arguing that because disconnects are down that people of New Brunswick can afford a rate increase. What they overlooked, and was brought up by me, as an intervener, were the disconnects avoided by rent bank assistance.
A Request for Information revealed that Social Development Minister Jill Green’s office stated that the rent bank program sent 41 payments to NB Power (up to a maximum of $2,750) to avoid disconnection; but according to the utility, they received 108 payments for a total of $111,928.07. The discrepancy in payments is quite concerning, but regardless, a minimum of 41 and up to 108 households avoided having their power disconnected through rent bank assistance.
The rent bank grant could be a vital program for our members, however, if you are living in NB Housing, where many people with disabilities live, you do not qualify. At one time, most NB Housing units included heat and electricity but that’s no longer the case.
No one woke up today and said, I want to have a disability. I want to live in poverty, yet it happens, and it can happen to anyone at any age. Many New Brunswick residents will wake up tomorrow and barriers posed by their disabilities will become insurmountable and they will have no choice but to stop working and seek assistance. With 35.3 per cent of the population having one or more disabilities, an increase of 8 per cent over the last reporting period, chances are it will be you or a loved one. How do you want to be treated?
It is time for our province to do much better by persons with disabilities, and this includes immediately committing to a power rate reduction for us. When the Premier replies with another tap-dance that implies it is covered in rent subsidies, please remind him that over 10,000 names are waiting for housing assistance and that the NB Housing Corporation is following all other landlords and removing heat and electricity from these subsidies.
We are at our breaking point Mr. Premier, and we vote. NB Power claims it cannot put into place funds or programs to assist us unless the government directs them to do so, so do so now. Do not make it some flimsy election promise that you may or may not follow through on post election.
Shelley Petit is the chairperson of the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities.
