Photo courtesy Powering Ontario's Growth/Ministry of Energy

Nova Scotia’s NDP are raising some concerns over the government’s plans to absorb $117 million of Nova Scotia Power fuel costs to spare ratepayers from a large increase.

“It seems necessary that the government do what it can to prevent a further increase, but the real issue is we need to find a way to help Nova Scotians afford their bills,” said NDP Leader Claudia Chender. “This is a band-aid solution and one that’s probably necessary but we’re going to be having the same conversation next year,”.

During the announcement of the plan, it was indicated that if approved the plan would prevent a 7 per cent rate increase this year, lowering it instead to 1.1 per cent.

Chender says given the context of the recent cut to the heating rebate assistance program and a reluctance from the government to establish a low-income assistance it’s time for Nova Scotia Power to start providing affordable energy.

“Fossil fuels aren’t the solution the market is volatile and subject to big price changes as we’ve seen this year, so every year we delay our transition to clean energy we are putting ourselves at risk of this same problem,” Chender said.

During the announcement of the government’s plan Natural Resources and Renewables Minister Tory Rushton said that the loan the government will take out to finance the fuel costs will be recovered from ratepayers over multiple years, with no impacts to taxpayers- however, Chender says that’s misleading. “Taxpayers and ratepayers in Nova Scotia are the same people so whther it’s on your taxes or on your power bill Nova Scotians will be the ones footing this bill,”.