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FREDERICTON — Politically motivated decisions over the last decade-and-a-half have added more than $1 billion to the roughly $6-billion debt of New Brunswick’s public power utility, a new independent report says.
The report by three experts released Monday recommends a vast overhaul of the debt-saddled NB Power, including that it operate independently from political direction that the authors say has hindered the corporation’s financial stability.
“We need to get the politics out of the boardroom and let NB Power get on with its business,” Anne Bertrand, New Brunswick’s former information and privacy commissioner, told a news conference. Bertrand, along with utilities expert Duncan Hawthorne and Michael Bernstein, who has worked in the Canadian power and utilities sector, were mandated by the Liberals to review NB Power’s operations.
Last year, Liberal Premier Susan Holt said the status quo was unacceptable for the utility, whose rates had increased more than 20 per cent over two years. The review ordered by her government included the utility’s financial sustainability and its attractiveness to investors — and even a possible sale to private interests.
Part of NB Power’s problem, the report said, were the various politically mandated rate caps and freezes over the last 15 years that have added $1.5 billion to the utility’s debt.
Political decisions to please voters, Bertrand told reporters, “really took its toll on how the utility ran itself,” adding that politics limited the corporation’s ability to function.
Hawthorne, meanwhile, said, “Electricity planning and managing assets require a long-term perspective, at minimum 10 years, but often 20 or even 40 to reflect the long-life nature of the assets.”
“This time horizon does not match the four-year electoral cycle.”
On the issue of privatization, the panellists came back saying that selling NB Power could make sense in the long term but not today.
“A lot of the operational performance and benefits that the private sector can bring are ones that we think can be done internally through some of the governance and other changes that we recommend,” Bernstein said.
Called “Fit for the Future,” the report also recommends the province build an “additional large-scale” nuclear plant near its current Port Lepreau facility. The Port Lepreau Nuclear Generating Station, says the report, should be spun off from NB Power and managed by a new entity focused entirely on its operations. That move could make it more attractive for potential future partnerships or sale.
Among the roughly 50 recommendations is a suggestion that New Brunswick launch immediate talks with other Maritime provinces on the creation of an independent system operator for the region. That operator would be a non-profit agency charged with managing power supply and demand.
“We believe this could be a perfect opportunity to save costs and manage things better than the status quo,” the analysts wrote. It’s also ideal timing for such a collaborative effort, they said, as Nova Scotia is working on launching its own independent system operator.
The panellists also recommended bringing back performance bonuses for NB Power executives and establishing a “customer advocate” to better represent residents at public hearings.
But the report acknowledges it does not offer a “silver bullet or easy answer” for “affordable, reliable and sustainable electricity.”
“The vacation that New Brunswickers had on rates in the past is over. Rates are going to go up now,” Bertrand said.
Energy Minister René Legacy says the government is prepared to make necessary decisions based on the report’s findings and will deliver next steps by the end of May. “New Brunswickers can trust that we will act on these recommendations in a timely and transparent way,” Legacy said in a statement.
“That work has already begun, and we look forward to sharing more.”
Kris Austin, Opposition critic for energy and natural resources, says the report was the Holt government’s attempt to “buy time” and offered little new information. But the Progressive Conservative MLA agreed that it was time for major changes to the utility, saying a more independent NB Power “would benefit everybody in the long run.”
“What we’re facing today is a day of reckoning from ultimately past political meddling in NB Power, but also NB Power mismanagement as a whole,” Austin told The Canadian Press.
One of the solutions to high rates, Austin said, could be removing New Brunswick’s long-standing restrictions on natural gas extraction. “If you had natural gas development in New Brunswick, you could actually heat homes with that natural gas as opposed to electricity,” he said.
“So yes, power rates will stay high but you have a lower-cost method of heating your home with direct natural gas.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 30, 2026.
Eli Ridder, The Canadian Press
