Dalhousie mayor fears NB Power sale

The mayor of Dalhousie is worried about how a possible sale of NB Power to Hydro-Qubec could affect his town, whichhas already been hard hit in recent years after many large employers closed.

About 90 workers are employed at NB Power's Dalhousie Generating Station in the small northern New Brunswick town.

The town has lost hundreds of jobs from the recent closures of a paper mill and a chemical plant, and Dalhousie Mayor Clem Tremblay said he's concerned that selling the public utility would put the future of the powerplant at risk.

"I just can't imagine what would happen, because we're getting almost a million dollars of revenue from the thermal plant assessment," he said.

"So if you eliminate that, Jesus, you might as well give the key to the province of New Brunswick, because I don't know how we could maintain the status of being a town or a village or whatever. That is a scary thing."

The 300-megawatt thermal generating station has a contract in place to burn oil until next year.

Tremblay said he has had no word from NB Power about its plans for the plant after that.

Premier Shawn Graham said on Tuesday that talks between New Brunswick and Quebec are at a critical stage as the two sides attempt to sign a memorandum of understanding on energy co-operation, but he would not confirm whether it will involve the sale of NB Power.

Graham did say, however, that any deal would need to lower power rates, pay down NB Power's massive $4.8-billion debt, continue to promote the province's so-called energy hub concept and help small and medium-sized businesses remain competitive.

Utility sale a good idea: critic

Rod Gillis, a Saint John lawyer and a longtime critic of NB Power, said he thinks selling the debt-plagued public utility is a good idea.

But he said any deal could hurt the province's expensive thermal power plants.

"If you have cheap, renewable hydro power, and you have an environmental problem with a plant that's burning fossil fuel that's expensive and you only have one customer, you're going to sell them the cheap fuel that you have being replaced with the rains coming from the sky, rather than running a thermal plant burning oil coming out of the ground," he said.