NB Power continues to cut people’s electricity during deep freezes

In the same month that NB Power faced its biggest demand for electricity on record – the brutally cold 28 days in February 2023 – the public utility disconnected 169 of its residential customers, new data reveal.

With NB Power under intense scrutiny for raising electricity rates by 24 per cent over the last three years and plans to raise them another 4.5 per cent in April, the cry has grown louder for the Crown corporation to end its policy of disconnecting customers during the harshest winter months if they don’t pay their bills on time.

Three out of every four households in New Brunswick heat primarily with electricity, making winter disconnections a safety issue.

Premier Susan Holt signaled during a news conference earlier this week that winter disconnections are a practice her Liberal government has considered banning.

“The power outages during the winter are something that worries us, especially for vulnerable people,” Holt said in French in response to a reporter’s question. “I want to protect our vulnerable, and I’m sure it’s the same with NB Power. There’s no way they want to leave New Brunswickers without power during the winter.”

Brunswick News examined NB Power’s residential disconnections for the seven fiscal years from 2017-2018 to 2023-2024. NB Power willingly provided the data to the news agency upon request Wednesday.

The data show that on average, the utility cuts people’s electricity far more often in the warmer months of April through October than in the coldest months of November, December, January, February and March when about 350,000 households crank their heat.

But cold-weather disconnections still happen on a regular basis. Over the seven-year period, 4,322 households had their power cut off between November and March, the iciest months.

NB Power insists it only cuts people’s electricity as a last resort, following plenty of phone calls and warning messages, and months of arrears stacked up for non-payment of bills.

Still, the disconnections kept coming in February 2023, the same chilly period that NB Power faced such huge demand.

Brad Coady, a senior executive director with the corporation, told an audience in Fredericton that year he was worried NB Power would run out of generating capacity and the province would suffer blackouts.

The specific date NB Power’s generators were running full tilt was Feb. 4, when wind chill and plunging temperatures made it feel like –40 C in New Brunswick and much of the wider region.

While there’s no evidence the disconnections happened on or very close to that date, Environment Canada confirmed with Brunswick News that the entire month of February 2023 was colder than average.

The average temperature in Fredericton that month – the same place NB Power’s headquarters are located, and its executives work – was –8.7 C. That’s colder than the February average in the capital between 1991 and 2020 of –8.1 C.

During that brutally cold month of February 2023, NB Power still cut electricity to 169 households.

The data was first shared with a new Vulnerable Populations Committee, struck by NB Power following a recommendation by the provincial regulator, the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board.

After hearing from several interveners during rate hearings that the poor and vulnerable would suffer disproportionately from high electricity price hikes, the board urged NB Power to set up a committee of utility and government officials and community representatives to address those concerns.

At the committee’s second meeting, on June 24, NB Power’s customer care team, according to a report, spoke to the officials “emphasizing the balance between financial responsibility and compassion. Team members detailed the proactive steps taken to help customers manage overdue bills and avoid service disruptions.”

The team also presented the seven committee members in attendance with the data on disconnections.

On average, it showed during the month of March over a six-year period there were far more customers who hadn’t paid their bills in at least 90 days than the total number of residences that had their power cut off. The number of households in significant arrears ranged from 7,120 in March 2023 to 11,141 in March 2019.

Brunswick News asked to speak to Cindy Morris, the committee chair, who is authorized to discuss its deliberations. Morris, who is the portfolio development manager of energy efficiency services at NB Power, was unavailable for comment on Wednesday.

However, Tracey Stephenson, a senior adviser at NB Power, said the utility had received a recommendation from the committee, “which we are evaluating and then will respond. We expect a decision will be made by December 1.”

She wouldn’t say if the recommendation was to abolish winter disconnections, but she emphasized that it had never been standard practice for NB Power to cut people’s power during icy temperatures anyway.

“Our goal is always to work with customers to avoid disconnecting service, and it is always an absolute last resort, especially in the winter months,” Stephenson wrote in an email.

“We are working hard to see how we help our most vulnerable customers during the coldest months of the year. We know this has been a topic at our recently formed Vulnerable Populations Committee, which is comprised of representatives from social organizations, government and NB Power and we are committed to promptly reviewing any recommendations that come forward.”

The premier said she wasn’t certain if banning the practice would require a legislative change or simply a policy directive and deferred to the committee and its recommendation. She added that she was still waiting to hear what would come out of the advice.

That’s not good enough for Shelley Petit, chair of the New Brunswick Coalition of People with Disabilities.

She said in an interview she wrote to the premier last year after her election win to formally ask the new Liberal government to ban winter disconnections.

Petit said she had yet to hear back from the premier’s office.

“The premier or the energy minister should be forcing a change to this,” she told Brunswick News, referring to Holt and René Legacy. “When you need power from a machine to live, that’s pretty egregious to have your electricity shut off.”

Petit pointed out that people with disabilities sometimes require breathing support systems, like ventilators and oxygen concentrators, dialysis and infusion pumps or electric wheelchairs, all requiring a stable electricity supply.

“During that big snowstorm in Quebec a couple of weeks ago that hit them by surprise, they had people who were stuck in their power beds for three or four days. They couldn’t even get up to use the washroom because they need their hoist and a powerchair. If there’s no power, boom! You’re done, you can’t move.”

Although Petit is a member of the Vulnerable Populations Committee, she said before signing on, she had to agree not to discuss their deliberations or findings.

However, she took part in a virtual meeting on Sunday with the independent three-person review panel that’s spending the better part of a year examining NB Power’s operations. The three experts are expected to make recommendations to the provincial government in spring.

“They asked us to send a formal request with facts and figures,” Petit said. “Although it’s not in their mandate, they said they’d like to focus in on who really needs help. If you think that 35 per cent of New Brunswickers have disabilities and another 20 plus per cent are seniors, we have to have better policies that ensure people are not being disconnected and dying because of it.”

Randy Hatfield, the executive director of the Human Development Council, an anti-poverty organization, is also a committee member.

Although he was not at liberty to discuss the committee’s deliberations, he said the council would be attending next year’s rate hearings as an intervener and would pose formal questions about NB Power’s disconnections.

“Ontario has banned the practice of winter disconnections outright, and Nova Scotia does not disconnect if there’s a 10-day weather forecast showing low temperatures,” Hatfield said. “There’s room for improvement.”

– with files from Adam Huras

John Chilibeck is a Local Journalism Initiative Reporter for the Daily Gleaner. This article originally appeared in the Telegraph-Journal on November 19, 2025.