The Province of Nuts

Danny and Andy and the 21st Century way of local politics.

Politics is the art of running the circus from the monkey cage. Some circus. Some monkeys.

Your electricity rates will climb close to 20% over the next two years.

That massive hike will be on top of a 6.4% jump in 2022.

Two things happened this year in the world of electricity price setting that no one has seen before in Newfoundland and Labrador. First, the Public Utilities Board - the government-appointed and government-controlled committee that sets electricity rates - delayed the date when rate changes happen from July 1 to August 1.

Second, the PUB told Newfoundland Power to take back its rate request and send in a new one so the numbers will be below an arbitrary level the government - and hence the PUB - would allow.

There’s a tidy summary of latest twist in the tale from allnewfoundlandlandor.com’s Emily Demming (July 12) but the details miss the big picture. Your electricity rates will go up 8.5% on August 1 but not because there was something wrong with Newfoundland Power’s application. The PUB ordered Newfoundland Power to refile because the Board couldn’t justify rejecting Newfoundland Power’s application and setting a lower rate based on facts and evidence. If it could, the Board could have explained it all in a simple ruling.

Instead, it followed political orders that rate increases cannot be above 10% each year. That’s because the guv’mint crowd think 10% and higher would cause consumers to switch to some other form of heating or cut back on the electricity spending. But for some magical reason any number lower than 10 is fine and higher and higher prices won't matter no matter how high they get. It's nutty. But then again, were all nutty here, it seems.

Think about all those guv’mint ads paid for with billions you have to pay back. They tell you the guv’mint has fixed the electricity rates problem and is concerned about your cost of living. But thats obviously not true. It’s just another way this whole Muskrat thing and politics generally is just one fib after another lie after another half-truth. The Andrew Furey plan to pay for Muskrat Falls is through your electricity rates, same as Danny Williams’ plan in April 2010, and Kathy Dunderdale’s plan and on through Dwight Ball to now.

In case you’ve missed it, there is no such thing as rate mitigation. Your rates under the Liberals will still be double what they were in 2016 just like they would be under the Pea Seas. It will just happen a few years later than originally planned and then they will keep going up after that, every year until some time in the 2070s. Since rates have to go up every year, they will outstrip rates everywhere else cross the country at some point not long from now so rate shock can come from many sources. No one thought of that.

Under the Williams-Furey Muskrat Falls scheme, there’ll come a time not too long in the future when Nova Scotians will pay less than Newfoundlanders do and they will get free electricity from Muskrat Falls. If rates went up 8.5 percent every year, we’d be paying the highest rates in the country before the decade is out. Theirs will be steady. Ours will always rise.

Get used to big rate hikes every year.

Get used to more political lies, fibs, pantomime review processes like the PUB and all the other corruption Muskrat Falls typifies.