N.B. vows public utility overhaul, but doesn’t commit to non-interference

FREDERICTON — The New Brunswick government says it will make sweeping changes to its debt-saddled public power utility — but would not commit to avoiding rate freezes that a recent review blamed for driving more than a billion dollars of debt.

Premier Susan Holt and her energy minister Rene Legacy on Monday revealed their government’s plan to follow through on nearly 90 per cent of the recommendations from three industry experts who reviewed the ailing NB Power.

The government said it will establish an energy consumer advocate, continue talks with other Maritime provinces about setting up a joint energy operator and modernize its energy laws, among other items.

The NB Power review was launched in April 2025 as the Liberals tried to address increasing power bill rates, aging infrastructure and NB Power’s roughly $6-billion debt.

While the Liberal government accepted a recommendation to limit the use of directives “as a means of intervening in the utility’s activities” and acknowledged “long-term” effects of dictating power prices, officials would not rule out rate controls.

Legacy, the energy minister, told reporters his goal is to ensure NB Power focuses on generating and distributing energy — and if it operates efficiently, the government shouldn’t need to restrict prices.

He agreed with the review’s three expert authors that rate caps and freezes only delay rate increases.

“You can’t defer those. It’s like your house: if you’re not going to change those shingles on that roof, you’re going to end up changing drywall and everything else in the bottom, so better maintain it,” he said at a news conference.

Holt said her government was able to offset rate increases in early 2025 with a 10 per cent tax rebate on monthly electricity bills, avoiding the need to impose a rate freeze.

“So that leaves NB Power free to set the rates that respond to the need for the utility to generate the revenue that covers the assets, but it puts an affordability mechanism onto the bill that’s funded by the government,” Holt said.

NB Power’s top executive Lori Clark said the Crown corporation needs to be financially sustainable in order to provide predictable, affordable electricity rates.

Clark said the government should find another way to help customers struggling to pay bills.

“Unfortunately, rate freezes have gotten us where we are today, and I’m not sure that is a good solution for the future,” said Clark, CEO and president of the Crown corporation.

The province accepted 44 of the 50 recommendations, including the creation of a stronger advocate position to replace the public intervener role.

Currently, the intervener represents the broad public interest at the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities board, the regulatory body that sets electricity rates and gas prices. But rate payers will soon be able to take their concerns to the new consumer advocate’s office.

“The advocate will now be able to take that information, do an independent review and actually could have powers to have NB Power correct if there’s a situation that’s not appropriate,” Legacy said.

The government said it will also continue ongoing talks with Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island to increase interprovincial collaboration on energy. Holt said she’s talking with her counterparts to build out transmission capabilities between the provinces and planning for future power generation as a region.

She also referenced the Eastern Energy Partnership, a multibillion-dollar initiative by the Atlantic provinces and Quebec to build a clean-energy corridor across Eastern Canada. That proposal includes extending a natural gas pipeline into New Brunswick from Quebec and has been submitted to the federal government’s Major Projects Office.

The government put off six of the NB Power review’s recommendations for “further analysis.”

They include a recommendation to increase natural gas production for home heating in a bid to ease electricity prices. New Brunswick has a long-standing provincewide ban on fracking and the Liberals last year dismissed the idea of lifting the moratorium.

However, Holt on Monday acknowledged that natural gas production is “clearly a conversation of national and international interest right now,” noting it can provide competitive power rates.

The premier said those changing tides are why her government is working on “a comprehensive energy policy that looks at today’s reality of all the tools that are available to us.”

“We really need to look at how it fits into the bigger picture of delivering stable and affordable rates.”

Opposition energy critic Kris Austin said he’s “not optimistic” the Holt government will allow more natural gas production, noting he’s twice proposed lifting the extraction ban but received no support from the Liberals.

“I’ve got no indication from government that the door is open, but maybe it is. Maybe they’re just holding their cards close,” the Progressive Conservative MLA said by phone.

Austin added he’ll be watching how the role of the consumer advocate is built, and whether it adds to government bureaucracy.

Clark agreed that natural gas extraction is “worth looking at” and that’s why further analysis would be required but added she couldn’t say what the government “should or shouldn’t do.”

The Liberals also said further consideration was needed on a call to restructure NB Power as a public-private corporation.

The government said it will give quarterly updates on implementing the recommendations.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published May 25, 2026.

Eli Ridder, The Canadian Press