Tories fight NB Power sale with petitions

New Brunswick's opposition ProgressiveConservatives are continuing to fight the proposed sale of NB Power by presenting petitions against the energy accord.

The Tories tabled more petitions inside the legislative assembly on Thursday, bringing the total to more than 5,000 people who have signed up to oppose the sale of NB Power.

The Tories also continued to hammer the government over alleged rate savings under the proposed $4.8-billion deal with Hydro-Qubec.

Some of the petitions, tabled in the legislature, oppose the sale, while others call on the Liberal government to hold a referendum or waituntil the next provincial election before completingthe deal.

More petitions are coming, said Tory Leader David Alward, who got into a heated exchange with Energy Minister Jack Keir over rates.

The Liberal government has been promoting a savings of nearly $1,400 for every electric heat residential customer during the first five years of the deal.

CBC reported two weeks ago that the government exaggerated those savings by excluding tens of thousands of low-consumptioncustomers from its calculations, such asthose who live in duplexes, apartments, townhouses and condos.

"Why is he continuing to use the $1,400 figure when he is speaking to the people of New Brunswick?" asked Alward.

"I'm glad to see the opposition is using crackerjack research from the CBC instead of its own folks," countered Keir.

Savings chart defended

The minister contends the chart in the government flyer, distributed in mailboxes across the province, clearly states that the advertised savingsapply only to some electric heat customers not all.

"It's very clear in that documentation ... the average homeowner that heats their home with electric baseboard heating," Keir said.

But the flyers don't actually mention "homeowners," but rather "households" a universal term that includes all dwellings.

"The average household heated with electricity would save nearly $1,400 over the next five years," it states.

Keir said he stands by the chart.

"That chart is very clear. People that heat their home with electric baseboard heating, which is going to be the folks that get the best impact out of this ... that's what it says in the brochure and the document that those folks are going to get that savings. I'm absolutely fine with that."

But the promoted savings require a consumption rate of more than 27,000 kilowatt-hoursof electricity.

NB Power documents, filed as evidence at Energy and Utilities Board hearings two years ago and obtained by the CBC, show that the average New Brunswick household that heats with electricity uses 20 per cent less than that about 22,045 kWh.

'Internal' document questioned

Meanwhile, Keir questioned whether a so-called internal document on NB Power rates, which the Conservatives have been using to question industrial rates savings, is real.

The Conservatives insist it's genuine and shows the sale of NB Power won't benefit industry the way the government claims.

Kirk MacDonald, MLA for York North, mentioned the documentTuesday but didn't table it and didn't make it public. Instead, the Conservatives sent out a reformatted version of the document's table and notes.

It appears to depict a scenario in which big industry would actually pay more in power rates starting in 2013 if NB Power is sold to Hydro-Qubec.

The government has said Hydro-Qubec would reduce large industrial rates by about 30 per centto the power price s offered to the same customers in Quebec. In the first year after the deal, industrial customers would receive about $91 million in electricity rate cuts, according to the government.

"It would seem that the analysis is different than the public message that we've been hearing. For that reason, I'd ask the minister to clarify it," said MacDonald, who insists he's certain the document comes from inside NB Power.

Keir refused to give CBC a taped interview about the document, saying he doesn't want to give it more credibility than it deserves.

He said he can't tell what basic assumptions were used to create it, or whether MacDonald created the document himself "at Tim Hortons."

If the analysis came from senior management at NB Power, Keir said he'd know about it and he's never seen it before.

Under the proposed deal, expected to be signed in March, Hydro-Qubec would pay $4.8 billion for mostof NB Power's assets, a sum that would wipe out the utility's debt.

In addition, residential rates would be frozen for five years.