While Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro should be a revenue generator for the province, the provincial government will be pumping money into the company two ways in order to keep Hydro rates artificially low during an election year.
The announcement on Friday comes near the end of the most difficult political session the Williams administration has faced since it was first elected in October 2003.
Read the Hydro release here and the provincial government announcement here.
Hydro has withdrawn its original application for a rate increase based on injections of over $10 million by the Williams administration. The $10 million was previously announced. Friday's announcement includes $400,000 in 2007 and another $200,000 in 2008 to keep consumer rates low.
As the government release notes, their cash injection merely forestalls the original rate increase until 2008.
The provincial general election will take place in October 2007.