The Consumer Advocate says the province’s regulatory system is broken.
Dennis Browne says the PUB has denied ratepayers a full public hearing into Newfoundland Power’s $123 million capital budget application—the largest in the company’s history.
Browne says the PUB has not publicly heard a capital budget application since 2005 when Newfoundland Power’s capital budget was $49 million.
Browne says the continued refusal of the PUB to convene a full public hearing into what he calls Newfoundland Power’s “annual, excessive” capital budget applications is indicative of a broken regulatory system.
He says in the last sixteen years, the utility has “received nearly every cent” requested for its annual capital—totaling $1.3 billion, awarded without any “full public hearing.”