Muskrat should mean cheaper power: Liberals

Opposition critics say the Newfoundland and Labrador government should use profits from a proposed power station at Muskrat Falls to lower what ordinary consumers will pay each month.

Liberal Leader Yvonne Jones has been hammering the governing PCs over a rate structure that would see power delivered at a lower cost in Nova Scotia than in Newfoundland.

Jones said Nalcor, the Crown energy corporation, should use its profits from the Lower Churchill project to cut the bills for ratepayers.

'There are many, many benefits, all of them will come to the people of this province.' Kathy Dunderdale

"I would like for someone to clarify once and for all, for the people of this province, are you going to have to pay a base rate of 14.3 cents on your electrical bill while the people in the Maritimes get it for 10 cents or less, or are you going to subsidize the power to these people so they do not have to pay all that money out of their own pockets?" Jones asked in the legislature.

Premier Kathy Dunderdale said it is too early for the government to commit to howprofits would be spent.

"There is one shareholder in Nalcor: It is the people of Newfoundland and Labrador," Dunderdale told the legislature.

"They will determine where the profits of Nalcor will go, whether it is to reduce energy rates, to build schools, to build hospitals, or to build roads," she said. "The government of the day will decide [and] therefore the people of the province will decide."

The government and Nalcor reached a deal last fall with Halifax-based Emera to transmit power from Muskrat Falls to Nova Scotia, including surplus power that could be in the U.S. or elsewhere in Canada. The government of Nova Scotia is supportingthe deal.

Outside the legislature, Dunderdale said the merits of Muskrat Falls would be proven over time.

"We can take the dividends from Nalcor and use it to build hospitals, to build schools to build infrastructure and there are many, many benefits, all of them will come to the people of this province," she said.

But Jones told reporters that Dunderdale's answer indicated there would be no relief for power consumers.

"We're asking them if there [are] any profits or any revenues from excess power sales, will that go back to subsidize the ratepayer of Newfoundland and Labrador, and the answer is no," she said.