Electricity users on the island of Newfoundland have started paying for Muskrat Falls
CBC
With their July electricity bill, Newfoundland Power customers have begun paying for Muskrat Falls, though bills haven't significantly increased — yet.
In a July newsletter, Newfoundland Power said electricity bills were set to decrease by 6.4 per cent as part of the annual rate stabilization adjustment, which reflects the cost of electricity generation.
Instead, that decrease has been offset by a 6.1 increase in electricity rates so Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro can begin recovering the cost of Muskrat Falls, the $13-billion hydroelectric megaproject that is billions over budget and years behind schedule.
That means for residential customers, electricity rates will decrease to 12.346 cents per kilowatt, though the basic customer charge will go up slightly from $15.81 to $15.83. According to an N.L. Hydro spokesperson, about six per cent of electricity bills will now go toward what it calls a "rate mitigation fund."
The spokesperson said N.L. Hydro is expecting the rate increase to result in $43 million this year — a tiny fraction of the project's cost.
N.L. Hydro asked the Public Utilities Board to approve the rate increase in May. In a letter, Energy, Industry and Technology Minister Andrew Parsons supported the increase, though he asked N.L. Hydro to keep electricity rates "as close to current levels as possible.
Muskrat Falls is not yet fully online — largely due to software problems with the Labrador-Island Link transmission line — and an order in council dictated that ratepayers on the island of Newfoundland would not begin paying for the project until the project was fully commissioned.
The provincial government modified that order in council so N.L. Hydro can begin collecting costs associated with Muskrat Falls once the project is "nearing" commissioning.
In June, N.L. Hydro said the project was expected to finally be completed by the end of the year.
In an interview with CBC News, Progressive Conservative interim leader David Brazil said the decision to begin recovering the cost of Muskrat Falls from consumers should have been delayed.
"There was an opportunity here for people to get some reprieve when it came to their electricity bills and this administration chose not to do that, not to help the people while they're struggling," he said.
In a statement, Parsons said reducing the rate was not an option, and would have resulted in increased borrowing costs for Muskrat Falls.
"Reducing the rate for one year to have it increase significantly the following year is not consistent with rate mitigation and also places an increased financial burden on taxpayers one year from now," Parsons said.
Brazil said his party didn't know the payments from Muskrat Falls would start in July, and criticized the government for not being more transparent.
Michael Vandell has been re-elected as chief of Deh Gáh Got’ı̨ę First Nation in N.W.T., defeating former Dehcho MLA Ronald Bonnetrouge.
A Canadian military counter-intelligence operative, accused of passing sensitive information to a foreign entity, was having conversations with a representative of Ukraine, CBC News has learned.
The Alberta Serious Incident Response Team has been called in to investigate an incident at the Dalhousie LRT station in which a Calgary police officer shot a man who was “acting erratically and carrying a knife.”
Around 40 people have been temporarily displaced after a building fire in O’Leary, in P.E.I.'s Prince County.
The price of the benchmark North American crude blend known as West Texas Intermediate, or WTI, slid to a four-year low on Tuesday, dipping to $55 US a barrel after starting the year off around $80.
The young man accused of being impaired and behind the wheel at the time he slammed into a Toronto family’s van, killing three children, has pleaded guilty in the case.
Gavin McKenna knew the haters would be ready to pounce.
Despite a deal to push government bills through their final stages before the House of Commons rose last Thursday, two pieces of priority budget and border legislation, C-4 and C-12, can't become law until at least February.
Skate Canada says it will no longer host major events in Alberta following a review of the province's legislation on the participation of transgender athletes in women's sport.
A surge of influenza among school-aged kids is linked to the recent deaths of multiple Ontario children, prompting calls for Canadian families to get vaccinated as medical experts brace for a worsening wave of infections across all age groups.
A London family doctor is not allowed to practice medicine for 10 months after being found guilty of professional misconduct.
Nearly three weeks after it started, the most complex fire in Toronto's history is finally out, but residents of two buildings in Thorncliffe Park still don't know if they'll be back home for the holidays.
The family of a man with schizophrenia charged with two counts of attempted murder is bracing for an aspect of the criminal justice system that is almost inevitable.