DAVID COON, Executive Director, Conservation Council
The Telegraph-Journal’s editorial, “Get tough with AECL,” places all the blame for the Point Lepreau refurbishment fiasco on AECL, but they forget our history.
The delays and cost overruns are the kinds of risks that led New Brunswick’s Public Utilities Board to conclude that the refurbishment was not in the public interest.
The other body of risk for the PUB was that a refurbished Point Lepreau would not perform as expected or run as long as planned, and that was with a performance contract in hand.
NB Power eventually abandoned any performance guarantees on the operation of Point Lepreau in return for less exposure on cost overruns and delays during refurbishment.
In the face of a recommendation not to proceed, based on volumes of evidence that the Lepreau refurbishment carried significant financial risks, then-premier Bernard Lord, cheered on by then-Opposition leader Shawn Graham, went ahead anyway.
Displeased by a PUB ruling that ran counter to the government’s wishes, Premier Lord limited the PUB’s powers and effectiveness.
Ironically, Energy Minister Jack Keir is suggesting that the powers of the EUB will be strengthened if Hydro-Québec buys NB Power. We need to return the EUB to its former position as an effective economic regulator of NB Power, but we don’t need to sell our public utility to achieve this.
We do need a radically restructured NB Power and an actual energy policy to put New Brunswick on a trajectory for an environmentally sustainable energy future powered by our abundant renewable resources.
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