Power utility shouldn't be profit-driven: poverty activist

A New Brunswick man who works with the poor wants NB Power's mandate changed.

Last month the utilitywas granted a 9.6 per cent interim rate increase on the condition it justify that amount at hearings later this fall.

On Tuesday NB Power asked that some of the increases be changed,now saying the two-thirds of residential customers who don't heat with electricity should only pay a 6.5 per cent increase. Meanwhile, people who heat with electricity could face an average increase of 10.7 per cent.

Dan Weston of the Fredericton Anti-Poverty Organization says the utility shouldn't always be profit driven. Otherwise, he says, the people least able to pay will continue to be hurt the most by rate hikes.

"I think that's the kind of approach that should be followed," Weston said. "That way the rates aren't always going up for those who can least afford it."

James Arsenault lives on a fixed income. On disability since the late 1990s, he gets $580 a month. He says it often doesn't cover his bills.

He says keeping his power hooked up sometimes means not paying rent, and in the past it's led to his eviction.

Now that NB Power wants to hike power ratesup to10.7 per cent,Arsenault says he wonders how he'll cope.

"I think they took enough off of me already," he said Thursday. "Like I said, they're going to run me out of my home here too, because I can't afford what I'm giving them now."

Weston says he'd like to see rates fall during slow times, and rise as the economy gains steam.