The North Shore Colombia Solidarity Committee Blog

About a dozen people showed up at a public hearing Wednesday night in Halifax to protest Nova Scotia Power’s proposal to hike power rates almost five per cent this spring.

While most opposed NSP’s request to hike power rates for the fourth time in five years, others complained about the privately owned utility’s environmental record and its controversial purchases of coal from a large mine in Columbia.

NSP buys millions of tonnes of cheap coal from the Cerrejon open pit mine in northern Columbia each year. The Atlantic Region Solidarity Network says this results in numerous human rights violations, including the eviction of people who live near the mine and the destruction of their homes.

"NSP has a moral obligation to look at the real price of its profits," group representative Yvette Michaud told the Utility and Review Board. "As a loyal customer of coal from Cerrejon, it should express its strong objection to the tactics used in the continued operation and expansion of the mine in Columbia."

She said NSP cannot buy cheap coal without paying attention to how it has been obtained.

Blake MacDonald, of the World Outreach and Faith In Action Committee, also raised concerns about the utility’s coal purchases from Columbia.

"We believe NSP has been too concerned about keeping down dollar costs of coal, about getting more profit for its shareholders, and about keeping relationships positive and friendly with its corporate partner in Columbia," he told the review board.

NSP president Ralph Tedesco promised to take another look at the Columbian mine and its conditions.

"We’ve actually had people tour those mines and seen the conditions and have been satisfied they’re reasonable," Mr. Tedesco said after the public session.

"We’re going to take an additional step now, which is to have our folks visit again . . . and actually now go into the neighbourhoods around those mines.

"I think we have a moral obligation to not purchase anything from companies that we judge to be or learn to be engaging in inappropriate behaviours," Mr. Tedesco said.

Hearings into the NSP’s rate application were shortened to just two days this week when the utility announced Monday it had reached an agreement on increasing power rates with some of its customers.

Residential customers now face a 4.8 per cent increase April 1; under the previous proposal the hike would have been 9 per cent. The average residential customer would pay an extra $3.50 per month under the revised plan.

The review board, which sets power rates, must approve the deal.

The agreement that was made before the hearings angered Allan Smith of Sackville.

Mr. Smith said initially he didn’t plan to come to the public hearing. But when he learned of NSP’s deal to cut its proposed rate hike in exchange for a fuel adjustment mechanism, he was upset.

He called the process "ludicrous" and "absurd." He accused the board of not allowing the public to scrutinize NSP’s original application, which was filed last October with regulators.

Board chairman Peter Gurnham said customers who signed the agreement last weekend on lowering the proposed price increase passed on asking NSP any questions.

Other interveners will make written submissions to the board, Mr. Gurnham said.

Fairview resident Paul Chiasson lives in an electrically heated apartment on a fixed income and strongly opposes any hike in electricity costs.

He lives on a social assistance payment of $820 a month, of which NSP gets $100.

"NSP must be held accountable for its ability to supply power in the form of generated electricity," he said. "If not through government oversight, which I find sorely lacking through this board’s devices and decisions, then through stiffened competition in the market place."

The board is expected to make a decision in the next few weeks.

( jmyrden@herald.ca)

posted by Alan  # 7:01 PM