Closing submission deadlines extended again in NSP rate hike application
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In Nov. 2 debate in support of the second reading of the Equity and Sustainability in Electrical Utilities Act she tabled on March 24, NDP Leader Claudia Chender argued for significant structural legislative changes in the way NSP is regulated.
“High power rates, high profits of the company need to be addressed, but they need to be addressed systematically,” Chender said in the legislature.
The NDP leader said the structural changes would permit the URB to create a program to make power more affordable for lower-income residential customers by ensuring that no residential customer would pay more than six per cent of household income on home energy.
Chender described Bill 212 as “an 11th-hour intervention that essentially kneecaps the independent regulatory process.
“What we have been advocating for is a change in the regulatory process,” she said.
Chender said the board is a creature of the legislature.
“We can determine how it regulates but then we need to set it free to do the regulations at arm’s-length, something this government is clearly not interested in.””