New Brunswick and Quebec have some interesting common energy interests, not the least of which is New Brunswick’s electricity interconnection with the United States.
No surprise therefore that the two provinces are talking about co-operation, possibly including the sale of some of NB Power’s assets to Hydro-Quebec.
What parts of the New Brunswick company might be of interest to Quebec aren’t clear. One thing is certain, though: the nuclear division is mired in cost over-runs on the up-grade for the Point Lepreau site. That might well make it a huge liability for NB Power in any broader sale.
The one competitive advantage the province has is its transmission lines and a strong, continuing relationship with New England customers. By contrast, Newfoundland and Labrador can’t even figure out if they are still working with Rhode Island.
Expect a local talking point that heads somewhere close to the giant conspiracy theory floated earlier by the Premier.
What you get by putting the real stories together is that NB Power is considerably more attractive than a fanciful project in Labrador that is both far from market and far from existing. A recent Telegram report by Rob Antle [not online] noted that the project is behind schedule in delivering detailed answers as part of the environmental review process.
On top of that it can’t be discounted that political tirades by the current administration have poisoned the relationship with other provinces. things are evidently so bad that even a willingness by Danny Williams to completely abandon his “redress” position and offer Hydro-Quebec an ownership stake in the Lower Churchill didn’t get even a sniff of interest from the Quebec Crown corporation.
Isolation is not good for Newfoundland and Labrador’s long term interest. The New Brunswick-Quebec connection demonstrates that pretty clearly.
-srbp-
2 comments:
Sadly, any asset sale would be along the same lines the NS Libs took when they sold off NS Power to Emera (which, coincidentally owns Bangor Hydro too). The purchaser gets the assets, likely including a refurbished Pt. Lepreau, while the seller gets a passel of money and keeps the debt (including the cost overruns on the Lepreau refit). Remember, NB Power already has $4 billion in debt sitting on its books, with another $800 million or so - for replacement power while Lepreau is offline - that kicks in when they restart Lepreau. Not a very sound siutuation for a utility that only generates about $1.2 billion in sales annually. HQ, like Emera, will never pick up someone else's debt (we need a South Korean utility willing to make some strategic investments for that to happen). Instead, New Brunswickers will lose their utility. The debt retirement charge added to the HydroQuebec bills will be the only reminder of better times. And the NB Grits will get a billion or two so they can claim to have balanced the books before the 2010 vote.
On the face of it my reaction is pretty simple: If I was a New Brunswick taxpayer, there'd be no question about getting rid of giant, inefficient and costly debt pig.
If it is this much of a mess and Bernard couldn't sort it out, then just as well to write it off for a lost cause. The only goal would be to get out of it with as little debt carried over as possible. New brunswick taxpayers would be better off in the long run.
Hopefully, unlike their NL counterparts, they actually will understand that this is there money not some stuff that appears as if by magic from somewhere else and gets automatically replenished when it hits zero.
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