On February 28, 2024 I rose in the Legislative Assembly of PEI to ask the Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Action about our energy supply, and Maritime Electric power rate increases in the wake of Hurricane Fiona.
Deputy Speaker: The hon. Member from Rustico-Emerald.
B. Trivers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. PEI needs to be more energy self-sufficient, and there is a huge opportunity in renewable energy. Indeed, the minister has been very vocal about setting an aggressive target to bring PEI to net zero energy. We’ve had the same Minister of Energy since 2019; however, this minister has been unsuccessful so far on moving forward with any major on-Island power generation initiatives. You might say that he has accomplished diddlywatt. At the same time, the minister has introduced initiatives to electrify PEI and use more power, paying for free heat pumps and rebating electric vehicles. The peak load on PEI consistently right now is over 300 megawatts. During the cold snap a year ago in February, the peak load was 393 megawatts, and our energy suppliers were close to the point of saying, “We have no more power to send you.” We saw a similar situation in Alberta in January of this year, and they had to issue an emergency alert.
Energy needs and costs
Question to the minister: Do you have a plan, or will we see emergency alerts and brownouts in PEI when the day inevitably comes that we can’t get enough energy to meet our energy needs?
Deputy Speaker: The hon. Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Action.
Hon. S. Myers: Well, thank you, Mr. Speaker. A lot to unpack there. We try our damnedest in here not to compare ourselves to Alberta, I’ll tell you that for starters. Alberta is a completely unregulated market, and there were a number of issues in Alberta that caused that situation in the winter. I don’t foresee us ever being in that situation here on Prince Edward Island. But what I will say is, since 2019, since I’ve been minister, we’ve added 34 megawatts of rooftop solar. We’ve added 21.6 megawatts in Summerside with their solar project and another 10 megawatts of solar in Slemon Park. We produce, just on roofs, 20 percent of our peak load; just on roofs here on Prince Edward Island. I’d say, Mr. Speaker, we’re doing a hell of a job.
Deputy Speaker: The hon. Member from Rustico-Emerald.
B. Trivers: If you want to know whether he’s doing a good job, you just have to ask him, Mr. Speaker. [Laughter]
At the same time, as we electrify Island life, electricity rates are rising. Maritime Electric, as we know, had huge costs related to Hurricane Fiona to the tune of over $37 million. They’ve applied to IRAC to approve a massive loan at today’s high interest rates that will be paid for by ratepayers, and added to the cost of the loan is the legislated requirement for them to pay out an over 9 percent shareholder return on a huge portion of this; again, on the backs of Island ratepayers. But there is a better solution, one that I brought forward to the minister before Maritime Electric applied for electricity rate increases. Government could loan the money to Maritime Electric through the PEI Energy Corp at significantly lower interest rates that government can get, and the requirement to pay the 9 percent shareholder return, much of it could be avoided. This was even done before. There’s a precedent with the debt incurred during the Point Lepreau project.
Question to the minister: Minister, are you going to continue to do “diddly-watt” while flying around the world talking about climate change, or will you take action and save millions of dollars for Islanders?
Deputy Speaker: The hon. Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Action.
Hon. S. Myers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Part of the reason I fly around the world to speak at events is because of the great work we are doing. We are absolute leaders; not just in Canada, not just in North America, in the entire world. We have world leaders coming – [Interjections] No, you wait until you see the list of people that we’re bringing down to our summit in Crowbush (Indistinct). We have world leaders from all over the world coming because they want to be a part of what we’re doing; they want to see what we’re doing. They think that we are the world leaders that we know that we are. But what I will say on filing, we have on a number of occasions taken on the debt. The cable that brings the power here from the mainland, that’s all on the Energy Corporation’s books. We get that back on a rate rider kind of thing, so we eventually get our money back. It’s on the rates. What I will also say is, when it comes to the Fiona cleanup cost, we’ve had a number of conversations in house. It’s in front of IRAC. We won’t know what the true costs are from an IRAC perspective until IRAC rules on it and says, “Here’s what the costs are.” We’re in every position to pay for 100 percent of that at any time if we want, but I don’t know we would jump in front now and pay it or offer to lend them money on it until IRAC has first said, “This is, in fact, the true cost.” If we were to go in right now and say, “Maritime Electric, we’ll pay this. We will loan you the money,” it would give IRAC the impression that we’re okay with that, and we want IRAC to go through the proper process and tell Islanders what the cleanup costs really are, and that’s where we’ll come in. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Deputy Speaker: The hon. Member from Rustico-Emerald.
B. Trivers: Thank you, Mr. Speaker. We know that this is a minister who likes to take action. He’s been the minister almost five years. We’ve seen him take steps that other ministers are reluctant to take in the past. By the Premier’s admission, this minister does what he wants. Because the minister has waited so long, Maritime Electric already has the application before IRAC. The minister says he wants that to be completed, but I think that he should consider intervening in these IRAC proceedings – as he’s done before – to get a better deal for Islanders. At the very least, I would like to have him table some more details about his approach.
Question to the minister: Will you commit today to intervene in these proceedings and save millions of dollars for Islanders, or at least table your approach?
Deputy Speaker: The hon. Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Action.
Hon. S. Myers: I guess I could write my approach down here on a napkin here and table it later, but it will be what I just told you: we’re at the point right now where this is in front of the regulator. We could intervene, but what would we say, that we don’t agree that these are the costs? I mean, there’s a whole component to the hearing that will determine whether or not that is the actual cost or whether that cost should be passed on to Islanders. The part that you’re probably most concerned about is the earning 9 percent on it, but what I’ve said here – like I said in the last question – is when we know what the costs actually are, we will have a discussion to protect the ratepayers. But I will say we are concerned. There are three rate increases in front of IRAC this year. There’s this one, there’s their general rate application – which we know rates will go up every year just because of the cost of doing business – and we have an ECAM one. The ECAM one is a concerning one, and that’s the cost of doing business. That’s the cost when there’s unaccounted energy that’s needed for various reasons. In this case, it was because Point Lepreau was offline for a period of time. That ECAM account builds up, and then eventually, Maritime Electric takes it to the regulator and says – ECAM is basically a deferred account – “This is what our deferral is, and we want to be paid back for it.” By our law, those things are all allowable. But this is why we’re going through the process that we’re going through. I know you attended the session that was in Kensington where we talked about: Is our energy policy right? Do we need better energy policy? I think we all know the answer is yes.
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