logo
N.B. Power report based on 'facts and evidence,' auditors tell MLAs

N.B. Power report based on 'facts and evidence,' auditors tell MLAs

CBC15-05-2025

Social Sharing
Auditors who examined an apparent winter spike in N.B. Power bills have persuaded one opposition party that meters are working properly — but another party still has doubts.
The two senior auditors from KPMG Canada spent almost three hours Thursday fielding questions from MLAs about their conclusions that the utility's residential meters accurately measured the electricity customers were consuming.
"Our work was focused on facts and evidence and data and analytics-based work. It was robust and it was thorough," said Andrea Coish, an auditor and managing partner of KPMG's Halifax office.
Jack Martin, a KPMG expert in forensic data analytics, told the public accounts committee that "there's no evidence that either conventional meters or smart meters were overstating the power consumption of New Brunswick Power residential customers."
They said it was up to N.B. Power to look at why some ratepayers were consuming more electricity than they believed.
The anecdotal evidence of unexplained spikes in January power bills put the Holt Liberal government on the defensive last winter, prompting it to call in KPMG.
WATCH | 'Our work was focused on facts': auditors grilled by MLAs
N.B. Power auditors field questions from MLAs about bill spikes
2 hours ago
Duration 2:54
The auditors examined 400 cases of bill spikes — enough to provide a statistically accurate picture of all customers, Martin said.
The report backed N.B. Power's initial explanation that a cold winter, a longer December billing period and a major rate increase — which may have passed unnoticed until winter — combined to jolt customers with high bills.
At least one Liberal MLA said he was convinced.
"We need to stick to the facts and the fact was, on the 400-plus meters, there was nothing wrong about that," Hautes-Terres-Nepisiguit Liberal MLA Luc Robichaud told reporters.
Green Party Leader David Coon, who had raised questions about the accuracy of some N.B. Power bills, said he was persuaded by the presentation.
"My view is that the report, after all the questioning, finds that the system is functioning properly for New Brunswickers in terms of making sure that the bills they're being given reflect their actual consumption," he said.
"I'm confident that's the case now."
But Progressive Conservative energy critic Kris Austin said he believes some New Brunswickers will remain unpersuaded because KPMG relied on meter data collected by N.B. Power's own meter testers.
"What we had called for was a review and a testing of the meters outside of N.B. Power's purview. That's what we wanted to see. That's what did not happen," he said.
N.B. Power CEO Lori Clark told the committee that the utility's testers, who are certified by a federal agency, Measurement Canada, would be risking their careers if they deliberately faked any numbers.
"There's no incentive for a tester to producer fraudulent results. These are highly trained individuals who would lose their certification and their jobs if they didn't measure properly," she said.
Austin told reporters it was his job as an MLA to reflect public skepticism at the committee, even after three hours of expert testimony.
"It's not my place to tell ratepayers the meters are working properly. My personal opinion — I have no reason to believe they're not," he told reporters.
"It's not whether I'm satisfied. It's whether ratepayers are satisfied, and what I'm hearing from many ratepayers is they're not satisfied."
Clark told the committee that Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador all experienced a public backlash to similar bill spikes during the winter — and authorities in all three provinces came to the same conclusions as N.B. Power.
Clark acknowledged to the MLAs that it has been a struggle for N.B. Power to convince some customers that they're consuming more electricity than they believe.
The utility plans to provide more information to ratepayers, including about how their habits and the weather may affect their bills.
"We have recognized through this process that a lot of our customers do not understand how they are using electricity and they know very little about how consumption is measured and how much they're using in their homes. So there is an education requirement, for sure."
Clark told MLAs that N.B. Power needs their help to push back at what she called misinformation and misperceptions circulating online, particularly on social media.

Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Green MLAs want quicker action on glyphosate report
Green MLAs want quicker action on glyphosate report

CBC

time10 minutes ago

  • CBC

Green MLAs want quicker action on glyphosate report

Three and a half years after a report recommended tighter restrictions on glyphosate spraying, some lawmakers say the pace of implementation has been too slow. "It's clear that not a lot of work was done on it in that time," Green MLA Megan Mitton said. "There were some things completed and some things very recently completed, but I would have liked to see more progress." The report by the legislature's committee on climate change and environmental stewardship made a number of recommendations on the future of herbicide spraying in the province. It followed extensive hearings with scientists, foresters, Health Canada researchers, First Nations, industry and the public. The recommendations included larger setbacks from dwellings and watercourses, that N.B. Power phase out aerial glyphosate spraying and an analysis of potential alternatives. In an update to the committee, Christie Ward, the assistant deputy environment minister, said 11 of 20 recommendations have been "completed" to date, while the remaining nine are underway. Some MLAs pointed out, however, that what the department has implemented is not what the initial report actually recommended. "When you went through the recommendations of the committee that were unanimously adopted, you pointed to a number of those recommendations that were marked as completed, which were not implemented as recommended," David Coon told department staff Wednesday. "So essentially you rejected those recommendations." For example, the report called for setbacks from dwellings to increase to one kilometre from 500 metres. Ward said permits for aerial glyphosate spraying issued last year increased setbacks to 500 metres from 155 metres. Instead of the minimum 100-metre setback from watercourses recommended in the report, ground application requirements were moved to 30 metres from 15 metres, and aerial spraying requires a minimum distance of 65 metres. Ward said that the department has spent time trying to understand the intent of the committee's recommendations and to carry out the spirit of them, even those based on a misunderstanding of the regulations that already existed. "These recommendations are complex in some cases, many of them require rigorous scientific review, they also require a baseline of information, so you know where you're starting from and where you need to get to," she said. "There's been a lot of work done in the background to really understand all aspects of the pesticide program." But Mitton said she'd prefer a more direct answer from the department on whether the committee's recommendations have been followed. "When the auditor general has a report, there's a response from the department and then there's an update," she said. "I almost feel like we need a bit more of a formal process, or to bring them in more often, to keep that accountability going because I don't accept some of those answers as a checkmark." Environment Minister Gilles LePage backed up his staff, noting the report, which he helped prepare as an opposition member of the committee, did err at times in its understanding of existing regulations. However, LePage agreed with other comments over the pace of action on the report over the last few years. "In the past six years, I think there was a lack of work on that file, and that's why it's part of my mandate," he said. "I was part of the evolution of pesticides in this province, with the research on this committee, and I take it personally, and we are going to focus on pesticides even more than the previous government." LePage's mandate letter from Premier Susan Holt includes two mentions of herbicide spraying. One is to implement all recommendations from the committee's report. The other is to investigate alternatives to pesticide and herbicide use and "re-evaluate the safety of glyphosate with new and comprehensive data specific to New Brunswick." "We're looking daily and monthly on the impacts of how it's done," he said. "But don't forget, our regulations are very strong and very rigid for application and for use."

GME Earnings: GameStop Reports Mixed Financial Results and 4,710 Bitcoin
GME Earnings: GameStop Reports Mixed Financial Results and 4,710 Bitcoin

Globe and Mail

time13 minutes ago

  • Globe and Mail

GME Earnings: GameStop Reports Mixed Financial Results and 4,710 Bitcoin

GameStop's (GME) share price is down about 5% after the video game retailer reported mixed first-quarter financial results. Confident Investing Starts Here: Easily unpack a company's performance with TipRanks' new KPI Data for smart investment decisions Receive undervalued, market resilient stocks right to your inbox with TipRanks' Smart Value Newsletter The Texas-based company announced earnings per share (EPS) of $0.09, which topped the $0.04 consensus expectation of analysts. However, revenue for the quarter came in at $732.4 million, which was below the consensus Wall Street estimate of $754.2 million. The company also reported an improved operating margin of -1.5%, which was up from -5.7% in the same quarter of 2024. GameStop's free cash flow at the end of the quarter totaled $189.6 million, which was a big improvement from negative -$114.7 million a year earlier. GameStop's profitability. Source: Main Street Data Bitcoin Purchases Along with its financial results, GameStop disclosed that it bought 4,710 Bitcoins (BTC) between May 3 and June 10 of this year. It's not known what the average purchase price of the Bitcoin was. However, GameStop's BTC holdings are currently worth $516.6 million based on the current price of Bitcoin. GameStop announced previously that it planned to begin buying and holding cryptocurrencies, adopting a similar playbook to that of software developer turned serial BTC acquirer Strategy (MSTR). GameStop has said it plans to use its excess cash to make investments in risk assets such as crypto and stocks. The company made its first Bitcoin investment in May of this year. Is GME Stock a Buy? Currently, only one Wall Street analysts offers a rating and price target on GME stock. So instead, we'll look at the stock's three-month performance. As one can see in the chart below, GameStop's share price has gained 33% over the last 12 weeks.

Mooseheads asking city for $1.6M to expand Dartmouth training facility
Mooseheads asking city for $1.6M to expand Dartmouth training facility

CBC

time17 minutes ago

  • CBC

Mooseheads asking city for $1.6M to expand Dartmouth training facility

The Halifax Mooseheads are asking Halifax regional council for up to $1.625 million to expand the training facility they lease at the RBC Centre in Dartmouth. Mooseheads general manager Cam Russell and Elizabeth Powell of architecture firm Fathom Studio outlined plans for a proposed 4,700-square-foot addition at a standing committee meeting on Wednesday. They said the project at the municipally owned centre would benefit both the team and the public. Russell, who has been with the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League organization for 25 years, told the committee the current training facility is challenging to use. "Our gym isn't big enough, we have to work out in two or three different groups," he said. "We have a lounge that only seats three to four players. We don't have a wellness area that would be good for the kids, for their mental health and their well-being." Russell told the committee a state-of-the-art facility would enhance the Mooseheads' ability to attract top talent, putting the team on the same level as NCAA teams, universities and colleges. Russell said the proposed expansion would include a high-performance gym equipped with hockey-specific training gear, a 21-metre turf training track, and a dedicated shooting room for skill development, which he said would be a first in the QMJHL. The plans would also incorporate a sauna, steam room and cold plunge recovery area, a more spacious player lounge and a publicly accessible, barrier-free washroom. The timeline for the project is about six months for the design and eight months for construction, said Powell, the project architect. Russell said the Mooseheads are asking the municipality to fund the construction of the building shell, while the team would cover interior costs and remain the exclusive tenant of the training facility. The Mooseheads' current lease, set to expire next year, costs the team about $45,000 annually, he said. Coun. Patty Cuttell said while she understood the need for the expansion, she had concerns about the municipality paying for a space for the exclusive use of a privately owned franchise. "If we build this, what's the cost recovery through the lease?" she asked. Maggie MacDonald, the executive director of parks and recreation, recommended a staff report to examine the financial implications, the assessment of public good, and potential cost recovery mechanisms. Cuttell said she would be willing to ask for a staff report once she examined the motion in greater detail.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into the world of global news and events? Download our app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store