New Brunswickers will pay 4.29 per cent more for electricity, a decision that will cost the average household an additional $118 a year.
The New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board released its order on the electricity rates Monday, only 13 days after telling NB Power it would not grant its full request to hike prices by 4.75 per cent for all its 430,000 customers, including residences and businesses.
The price change comes into effect Tuesday.
After sifting through the evidence from public hearings, the board ordered NB Power to recalculate some of its revenue requirements and to cut back a few costs. Officials with the public utility quickly revised the numbers, and the board signed off.
The quasi-judicial body concluded that the new rates of 4.29 per cent, which apply uniformly to all customer classes, were “just and reasonable.”
The public intervenor for the energy sector, Alain Chiasson, argued during the hearings that NB Power should only raise the rate with inflation, about two per cent. He was disappointed with the decision, given the public backlash against NB Power’s recent rate hikes.
“It’s unfortunate the board didn’t substantially reduce the rate because this is going to affect a lot of consumers,” Chiasson told Brunswick News on Monday.
With the latest increase, electricity rates in the province will have gone up about 28 per cent in four years. Those hikes have led to cries of rate shock.
“But the way the legislation is, the board had to follow NB Power’s proposed revenue requirements. They believed they were justified, so they had to give NB Power what they wanted. That’s how the law is written.”
Anti-poverty activists rallied hard against the increases, including Shelley Petit, chair of the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities.
She said $118 a year extra for a family might seem like nothing to an NB Power executive who makes a six-figure salary, but it was much worse for someone in a vulnerable position.
“It’s terrifying. They’re already deciding, ‘what am I not going to eat? What medication am I gonna skip? How cold can I let my place go next year?’ We currently have so many people within the disability community looking to find places to move to because they simply cannot afford their current power bill. So, can they find a place that’s a little bit smaller, fewer windows, whatever, to save money?”
During the hearing, the Human Development Council filed a report showing that as many as one-quarter of households heating with electricity in New Brunswick were suffering from energy poverty, spending at least six per cent or more of their income on NB Power bills, leaving little money for other necessities.
The coalition is circulating a petition demanding that the provincial government set up a special program for vulnerable people who can’t afford their electricity, like what’s offered in Ontario and British Columbia.
“You should hear the calls I get of people crying,” Petit said. “You know, people who are now homeless because they couldn’t pay their power bill. And it’s terrifying for people and nobody should have to live like that in New Brunswick. So, we’re going to keep pushing.”
The board panel – chairman Christopher Stewart and members Heather Black and Michael Pickup – has also allowed NB Power to start charging households an extra fee if they want to keep their old meters rather than have a new smart meter.
The traditional meters require a worker – a meter reader – to come to a customer’s home every two months, making the devices more expensive for NB Power to run. The new charge of $4.65 a month begins Sept. 1, giving those customers plenty of time to switch to a smart meter if they want to save money. The extra fee works out to nearly $56 more a year.
Tracey Stephenson, an NB Power spokeswoman, told Brunswick News that the rate increase would cost the average residential customer who heats primarily with electricity, using 1,350 kilowatts per hour, an extra $9.83 a month.
“The funds from this rate change will be invested in reliability and grid improvements to ensure we can meet the energy needs of New Brunswickers today and into the future,” she wrote in an email. “We will be communicating the rate increase to customers starting Tuesday.”
The NB Power spokeswoman said information is available at www.nbpower.com/takecharge to help customers better understand how they’re using electricity so they can take action to help lower their usage and therefore bills wherever possible.
Additionally, Stephenson said that NB Power, through its Save Energy NB platform, also offers programs to help New Brunswickers manage their energy usage and bills.
By John Chilibeck, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Original Published on Apr 14, 2026 at 07:16
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