Holt doesn’t know why no one knew how to cut gas price sooner
CBC
Premier Susan Holt says she doesn’t have an explanation for why regulators, policy experts and others responsible for gas price regulation didn’t clue in to a simple way to lower prices for consumers until the end of 2025.
Holt acknowledged in a year-end interview with CBC News that the oversight meant New Brunswickers paid too much for gas in the last couple of years as a cheaper form of gasoline came into widespread use.
“I think a lot of people reacted that way and asked the same questions that I did: how did everyone miss this?” Holt said.
“We've been trying to figure out why it wasn't caught sooner, but glad that we caught it at all.”
The Energy and Utilities Board stymied Holt’s first attempt to lower gas prices with a repeal of the cost-of-carbon adjuster, legislation that required the EUB to pass the cost of federal clean fuel regulations onto consumers in the pump price.
When the repeal took effect Dec. 1, the board replaced the charge — eight cents per litre at the time — with a new surcharge in the same amount, to protect gas stations from being forced to absorb the cost of the regulations.
According to the premier, a staffer in her office began poring over legislation and regulations looking for some other mechanism that would also lower the price.
On Dec. 9, the staffer discovered that cabinet could issue a simple order-in-council to change which fuel type was being used by the EUB to calculate the minimum price.
The order, adopted two days later, substitutes E10 gasoline, which is cheaper because it is diluted with ethanol, into the formula.
The price of gas dropped 7.9 cents per litre.
The premier said she’d like to know why no one in the Department of Energy or at the EUB spotted that under the previous Progressive Conservative government or during the 13 months her Liberals have been in power.
“Those are the questions that we’re asking, to find out: is there a regular process to review, or did it just become habit, status quo?” she said.
“I'm pleased that we caught it when we did, but I wish that it had been caught by people before us.”
PC Opposition Leader Glen Savoie disputed the premier’s version of events.
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