Bill No. 98 - Equity and Sustainability in Electrical Utilities Act - 2nd Reading
CLAUDIA CHENDER « » : I'm pleased to rise and speak to this bill, which we tabled in the last session. The title is surprisingly relevant today: Equity and Sustainability in Electrical Utilities Act.
We've been talking a lot about utilities. Recent government actions have shone light on our need to reform our relationship with Nova Scotia Power. I don't think that we would find anyone who would disagree with the idea that we need to reform that relationship.
High power rates, high profits at the company need to be addressed, but they need to be addressed systematically. I think that what we are seeing right now is the opposite of a systemic, thoughtful intervention in what is happening with power rates - and more importantly, what is happening with the bills people pay and the way that our power regulatory system is structured.
What we see on the floor of the Legislature right now is an eleventh-hour intervention that essentially kneecaps an independent regulatory process. What we have been advocating for and what we advocate for in this bill is, in fact, a change in the regulatory process.
NSUARB is an independent regulator, but it is what we call a creature of statute. It is created by this Legislature through legislation, so we can determine how it regulates. But then we need to set it free to do the regulation at arms-length - something this government is clearly not interested in. This is just the latest example.
We have put forward a slew of ideas of how to accomplish this. One of them is a performance-based regulatory system - a system that, in fact, incentivises ecological sustainability and clean energy.
As most members know, right now Nova Scotia Power is incentivised to do one thing: sell power. As we reduce our need for power in certain ways through efficiency, that is at direct cross-purposes with Nova Scotia Power's raison d'etre. They exist to sell power, and that's fine. They're a private company. That's their business model.
We are a government, and we are responsible to ensure that everyone in this province has access to the power that they sell. This is not a choice in our climate. You can't live without power. Some very hardy souls do live off-grid in this climate. I would suspect that almost all of them have access to some kind of alternative energy source. That's great, but right now, to do that at scale is very difficult.
This bill requires Nova Scotia Power to consider climate change target reductions in its work - something that it is not now required to do. We know that this government talks a lot about the Environmental Goals and Climate Change Reduction Act. That's great. We've got goals, but those goals will only take us so far. We need action. That is one of the things that this bill attempts to do.
We've heard from advocates recently, such as Bill Mahody, who is the Consumer Advocate, about the importance of independence of the NSUARB, and concerns about recent government overreach.
Rate-setting for Nova Scotia Power is very complicated. I don't know how many people have had the privilege of sitting through one of those hearings. I have done part of it. It is incredibly complex regulatory law. One of the things that's important is the independence of this process. One of the reasons that's important is because otherwise, the company doesn't have access to low-cost financing.
I think it's really important to understand that one of the things that the NSUARB cannot do right now is to set up a universal service program. That's really at the heart of what we think would be a systemic intervention in the NSUARB process. Right now, according to legislation, the NSUARB cannot discriminate within a rate class. All consumers need to pay the same amount. There's no choice. The NSUARB would be breaking the law to mandate that consumers pay different amounts.
However, we know that not all consumers are the same. This government is talking at great length about targeted interventions. They know that there are people who cannot afford power, and so a universal service program says that the UARB is enabled, that they may create a different way of charging low-income Nova Scotians, in particular.
Just as we in the NDP caucus, anyway, and the Canada Housing Mortgage Corporation - although maybe not the Nova Scotia Progressive Conservatives - recognize that affordable housing means 30 per cent of your income, it is also widely recognized that affordable power means 6 per cent of your income. That's the test.
What we are suggesting is that for Nova Scotians for whom a power bill is more than 6 per cent of their incomes, it should be accommodated by the UARB such that they can afford power. Put simply, this to me - I mean, we have brought forward two bills today that we actually think are entirely uncontroversial. They're not ideological. They're not meant to pin the government in one way or the other. They're actually just meant to help people.
We have spent all of this session and most of the last session trying to raise the alarms about the impact of the cost of living crisis on Nova Scotians. There are so many in this province who are struggling to afford medication, who are struggling to afford power, who are struggling to afford groceries, who are having a hard time putting gas in the tank, and you know what? We want to be positive too. This government does not have a lease on positivity, and they certainly don't have a lease on compassion. That is what we're doing here.
We're demonstrating our compassion by saying, doesn't everyone deserve the same opportunity right now? We are not all in the same boat. We are in the same storm, but we are not in the same boat, and for some people, paying your power bill is an inconvenience. For some people, picking up your prescription makes you think twice about your bank balance, and for other people, it's impossible. For those people, we are saying please consider this bill. Consider a strategic, smart, useful intervention in the regulatory process.
When the government comes in with a bill like the one on the order paper now, Bill No. 212, and cuts the legs out from under a regulatory process that is just about to wrap up, there are massive repercussions, known and unknown. It gives Nova Scotia Power a certain kind of authority where they can stand up in Law Amendments Committee and say, well then, we're going to break the law. We're not going to meet our 2030 targets; we're going to break the law. Why would we do that? We have Nova Scotia Power and the Consumer Advocate, who by all accounts are on very opposite sides of the table, saying the same thing.
This would not get that kind of reaction. I promise you, Madam Speaker, it wouldn't, because you would have an overwhelming number of people who would say that makes sense. It makes sense that people should afford to be able to turn the lights on. It makes sense that everyone should afford to be able to turn on their stove or turn on the thermostat, just like it makes sense that everybody should deserve a roof over their head.
I've spoken a lot about the universal service program, but as I said, this bill would also create a sustainability advocate. There's a lot that can be done to reform our regulatory environment to make sure that people have access to power, that people have access to the things they need, but it is a complex environment with difficult dynamics. We are in an inflationary environment. Most of our electricity still comes from coal. We desperately need to change that, and we need to build the jobs that come with that transition, but this is too important for a reactionary piece of legislation with a ton of unintended consequences.
Nova Scotia Power's profits are too high. Our bills are too high. Our service is unreliable, and I think it's uncontroversial to say that the model is broken. It's time to take a look at permanent fixes that will make life more affordable for Nova Scotians and protect the environment.