Via Canada East:
New Brunswick needs a federal-provincial agreement on offshore oil and gas exploration, along the lines of those signed by Quebec, Nova Scotia and Newfoundland and Labrador. And it must finalize such an agreement soon, before the east coast oil-and-gas rush moves into adjacent waters.
The focus is on natural gas.
Natural gas is pretty cheap these days but it can be used to generate electricity more cleanly than with other fossil fuels.
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The newly elected premier of New Brunswick is promising to tackle a provincial budget deficit approaching a billion dollars by “holding the line” on taxes and eliminating “wasteful” spending.
Oh yes.
And he’ll balance the budget in four years.
It’s going to be very interesting to see how he manages to sort out New Brunswick’s financial mess, at the same time, promising no radical change.
The New Brunswick Tories have their work cut out for them.
A new Progressive Conservative government led by David Alward will:
- Cancel future tax reductions f or the 1,300 richest New Brunswickers, who have an average income of $450,000, announced by Shawn Graham last year. This move will allow New Brunswickers to keep more than $120 million over the next four years to tackle the deficit and protect front line services, senior care and education for our children.
- Target a two percent reduction in wasteful and unnecessary spending while protecting spending on priority programs in health, education and services to those in need. Under the leadership of a temporary Government Review Office, this action will result in savings of $150 million annually.
- Create a “Taxpayers First” website for people to submit their ideas on where to save money in government to reduce the deficit and where to invest in better programs and services.
- Hold the line on cutting corporate taxes to 10%, still the lowest rate in the country, preserving $25 million in annual funding for government programs.
- Reduce by 50% the small business tax rate during our four-year term.
- Require that the Auditor General produce a special report on the province’s finances 60 days before each fixed election date.
- Propose new laws to start down the road to balanced budgets within four years.
- Increase the frequency of financial reports so that New Brunswickers can judge our performance.
- Propose new rules on how much the provincial government can spend in any one year, including a legislated cap on total spending that can only be exceeded under special circumstances.
- Bring forward legislation requiring government to table a deficit reduction plan with every budget, and that the Auditor General verify the results annually.
- Encourage more collaboration between government departments to promote efficiencies and share common services.
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The Government of New Brunswick today signed a letter of intent to study construction of a second reactor at Point Lepreau.
"The New Brunswick government recognizes the integral role the energy sector has in growing our economy," said Graham in a media release.
"Although this announcement is just a first step, a project of this magnitude would create 8,500 direct and indirect jobs for New Brunswickers in all regions of our province."
Newfoundland and Labrador ‘s government-owned energy company has been trying to interest New Brunswick in buying power from its Lower Churchill project, if the project is completed.
The current price tag for the hydro development could be as much as $14 billion. In comments last month, Premier Danny Williams said that any decision on the project is up in the air indefinitely.
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New Brunswick Conservative member of parliament Greg Thompson – who isn’t planning on running for re-election – says that Conservative cabinet minister Keith Ashfield is sitting on pork announcements for New Brunswick in an effort to influence the provincial election in September.
Canwest is reporting:
"(Ashfield) stated very clearly, with his own lips to me, 'We're not going to be carrying the province on our backs to the next election.' And, of course, I took exception to that and I'm just wondering who he's attempting to punish," said Thompson, who says he is not running in the next federal election.
Thompson said he suspects Ashfield is defending his chief of staff Fred Nott, who suggested in an e-mail to hold off on approving funding in Thompson's riding until after Sept. 27, the date of the provincial election.
Hmmm.
A fight within the Conservative party?
A family feud as it were.
Sounds vaguely familiar.
Come to think of it, New Brunswick provincial Conservative leader David Alward might want to be careful about having what UNB political scientist David Desserud called “some of that Danny Williams magic” rub off. Desserud made the comment after Alward took a taxpayer funded partisan campaign hop across to see the Old Man recently.
Alward might well have been thinking how nice it would be to get the rumoured version of the Danny Williams effect. But truth be told, the the real Danny Williams Effect can be a bit more like something you pick up on a planet in Star Trek: The Original Series. You know: the stuff that makes your hands all itchy and then Sulu comes at you with an epee right before some whack-job belts out another chorus of ‘I’ll take you home again Kathleen.”
Maybe poor Dave got the actual Danny political mojo instead of what he hoped for.
And then: poof!
Instant family feud.
Ouch.
That has got to hurt.
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labradore makes a couple of very interesting points about Danny Williams and the failed New Brunswick Power deal, what with a major story that remains unreported in the mainstream a full six months after it broke.
Frankly it’s hard to know what’s more interesting here: Shawn’s failure, Danny’s intervention or the reason why the mainstream media continues to ignore a gigantic energy story in Newfoundland and Labrador that is directly related to the first two.
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Related: “Five years of secret talks…”
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.
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The New Brunswick electricity is booked, with only 310 megawatts of capacity expected to come free in 2015, according to the Telegraph Journal.
Preliminary studies of the New Brunswick system commissioned by Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro show that while the existing grid could handle power from the Lower Churchill, the booked capacity - particularly across the New Brunswick to Maine intertie - is “the limiting factor.”
"When you reach an intertie and it is fully booked, fully reserved, you need to reach an agreement with one of the holders of the capacity," said Sylvain Gignac, the president of the NBSO [New Brunswick System Operator], which polices the province's transmission lines.
"It will be tough without building new transmission, except if they reach a deal with one of the biggest holders, which are Hydro-Québec Energy Marketing (HQ Energy Marketing Inc.) and New Brunswick Power (NB Power)."
In the current configuration, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro would have to cut a deal with an existing user to ship what the Telegraph Journal says would be 740 megawatts through New Brunswick.
The alternative would be to build new capacity. Nova Scotia-based Emera is reportedly looking at a new connection from Canada into the New England market.
In an interview with the Telegraph Journal, Hydro chief executive Ed Martin repeated the standard Hydro forecast:
Commercial customers in Newfoundland and Labrador could take on some of Lower Churchill's power, Martin said, adding that the closure of a thermal generator could free up a greater need for the project's power there.
But New England remains the No. 1 market for the company.
"We would certainly target there but we're in business and anywhere we have a need that we can fulfill, we're going to consider that," Martin said.
Martin did not disclose what customers those might be. Environmental impact documents for the Lower Churchill project do include a demand forecast that shows a domestic need for power from the Muskrat Falls and Gull Island sites. As well, the thermal plant at Holyrood will be maintained in operation – not closed as suggested in Martin’s comment – to help manage the transmission of power from the Lower Churchill.
Hydro seems to be counting on Emera to add to the capacity across the international border. The recent deal between Hydro and Emera that sees the latter buy power from Hydro could well be part of a much larger, developing relationship between the two companies.
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