New BrunswickN.B. Power’s CEO is hoping to see concrete solutions out of an ongoing review, but warns that the utility’s financial problems won’t be solved overnight.CEO says the utility is looking to ongoing review for ways to temper rate increasesSavannah Awde · CBC News · Posted: Oct 10, 2025 4:30 PM EDT | Last Updated: 2 hours agoN.B. Power CEO Lori Clark says the utility’s financial challenges won’t be solved overnight. (Silas Brown/CBC)Customers can expect rate increases for years to come, N.B. Power’s CEO said Friday, as the utility grapples with growing debt.But CEO Lori Clark, appearing at a legislative committee, did not say how long those increases are expected to continue, or how much debt is expected over the next few years.The utility announced last week it is requesting a 4.75 per cent increase to rates in 2026, and tentatively plans to increase rates by 6.5 per cent in 2027 and 6.5 per cent again in 2028. Clark declined to say whether future rate increases would line up with the rates proposed for the next three years, or if they would land closer to the nearly 10 per cent applied in both of the last two years.She said the $9-billion Mactaquac Dam refurbishment would not be funded entirely through borrowing, but did not say how much of that total would be added to the utility’s current $5.7-billion debt load. WATCH | ‘It’s going to take time to solve’: utility says no quick fix coming:Power rates and debt likely to continue to climb: N.B. Power CEON.B. Power CEO Lori Clark says she hopes to see concrete solutions from the comprehensive review of the utility, but warns New Brunswickers that rates will likely continue to rise no matter what happens.Progressive Conservative MLA Kris Austin said during the meeting that he’s concerned the utility’s debt has far outpaced power rates. “Is it accurate to say that, even with this rate increase that you’re asking for, for 2026, still keeps our rates artificially low in comparison with our debt ratio?” he asked. “The challenges cannot be underestimated that, that N.B. Power is facing … at the end of the day, somebody has to pay the bill.”Clark said with the last three rate increases, N.B. Power is “starting to catch up,” but that more rate increases are necessary.Review draws hope, skepticism Clark said the rates for the next two years won’t be finalized until the utility receives the recommendations from an ongoing review into N.B. Power’s operations. “The comprehensive review will have an opportunity to provide recommendations that may be able to offset some of that or manage the rate of increase for customers,” she said, speaking with reporters at the legislature.That review aims to figure out how the utility can get into a more sustainable financial position, despite its planned spending on aging infrastructure, while also charging fair rates. While pointing to the review as an avenue for solutions, Clark warned the recommendations won’t be “silver bullets” for the utility.”Sometimes I lose sleep at night thinking, what do we need to do tomorrow? How do we fix this tomorrow?” she said. Progressive Conservative MLA Kris Austin is not convinced a review into N.B. Power will provide the solutions the utility’s CEO is hoping for. (Mikael Mayer/Radio-Canada)”And, what I realize and bring myself back to is, we didn’t get here overnight, so to think that we can solve this overnight is going to be wrong, we can’t. It’s going to take time to solve it.”Austin said he’s still not convinced the review will yield any new solutions. He believes the province is using the process to “soften the blow” of its eventual decision.”There are times when we just don’t have all the information, and we need to gather it to come out with a reasonable decision, but this isn’t one of them. This is one of those areas where we know what the issues are,” he said. “It’s a massive debt load. Where is that debt load going to go? Is it going to continue to be downloaded to ratepayers? Is it going to be transferred over to taxpayers by the province taking the debt?”ABOUT THE AUTHORSavannah Awde is a reporter with CBC New Brunswick. You can contact her with story ideas at savannah.awde@cbc.ca.With files from Alix Villeneuve
N.B. Power expects rate increases, growing debt for years to come
