WATCH: NB Power is asking the EUB to increase monthly payments, but the power utility is also being held accountable for plenty other issues New Brunswickers haven’t had much of a chance to ask before. Laura Brown reports.
FREDERICTON – Dan Dionne is at the Energy and Utilities Board public hearings this week, looking for some answers to questions he’s had for some time.
Dionne is the Village of Perth-Andover’s Chief Administrative Officer, the man who’s in charge when the village of 1,700 has to undergo an evacuation.
Which happens more than you might think.
Perth-Andover saw high water in 2008. In 2009, the village declared a local state of emergency. Three years later, the flood of 2012 resulted in the destruction of more than 75 buildings in the community.
Last year, the village had a voluntary evacuation for three days.
In April, an ice jam prompted the village to declare another local state of emergency and a 48-hour mandatory evacuation of more than 300 people.
READ MORE: Massive ice jam in Perth-Andover, N.B. prompts evacuation order
Most blame it on NB Power’s Beechwood Dam, which sits 14 kilometres below the village.
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“There’s 14 kilometres between Perth and Beechwood and we try to jam 200 plus kilometres of river ice into a 14 kilometre space between us with some turn so it’s a challenge for the community,” Dionne said. “You know, obviously the headpond isn’t big enough.”
He’s looking for answers on headpond maintenance or dredging and if there’s anything NB Power can do about the problem.
READ MORE: ‘Studies not worth the paper they’re written on’: flood victims frustrated
The Village will get the chance to ask those questions during the EUB hearings, being held this week and next in Fredericton and Saint John.
NB Power looking for 2% rate hike
The EUB hearings are for the province’s energy utility to explain why they need a two per cent rate increase. That’s about a $4 increase on your monthly power bill.
They need the EUB’s approval to move ahead with the increase.
“We have Mactaquac coming up and we do need to start generating some money now to get the debt paid down so for this year, I don’t generally disagree,” said energy watchdog Chris Rouse.
NB Power is expected to make a decision on the Mactaquac dam’s future by December, 2016. Estimates for the cost of the project have ranged from $3 billion to $5 billion.
NB Power says the increase would mean they’d be better prepared for the cost of the dam.
It would go into effect in October.
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