FREDERICTON — New Brunswick’s Opposition leader wants the people of the province to decide the fate of NB Power’s proposed sale to Hydro-Quebec.
On Wednesday, David Alward called for a referendum on the deal, which would lower power rates but is being assailed as overly generous to the province’s biggest industrial users.
“The shareholders are the people of New Brunswick — not the premier and not the minister of energy — and we believe they deserve the right to vote on the deal,” Alward said after tabling a bill called the NB Power Referendum Act.
“Ultimately it should be the people’s choice.”
Alward said the Conservatives have been deluged by voters who are angry about the accord, announced last month by Premier Shawn Graham and Jean Charest, his counterpart in Quebec.
Because of that, the Tories introduced the bill, even though it has little chance of being affirmed by Graham’s majority Liberal government.
“Every day, we are getting hundreds of calls and emails from people saying it is unacceptable,” Alward said. “We got their message, and this bill should send a fairly strong message to the government on a number of fronts.
“People don’t believe the government has a mandate to do this, and this bill allows people to be heard as part of the democratic process.”
Alward tabled the motion at the end of a chippy morning session at the legislature. The debate over the proposed sale dominated question period and promises to continue raging on.
At times on Wednesday, the sparring got so heated that members on both sides were occasionally “shooshed” by colleagues for shouting insults across the aisle.
Initiated by Graham in January and just recently agreed to in a memorandum of understanding, the $4.8-billion deal would wipe away NB Power’s debt while also freezing rates for residential customers and lowering them for industrial users by 30 to 40 per cent.
Energy Minister Jack Keir said the government is ready for the debate, and is not unnerved by the bill that Alward introduced.
“This is probably one of the most important issues debated in this house in a long, long time,” he said. “Look, we have been elected to lead, and that is exactly what we are getting to do.”