The province’s consumer advocate wants to see a return to full public hearings to allow for proper scrutiny of capital budgets presented to the Public Utilities Board.

Full public hearings were discontinued in 2005 and since then capital budgets have skyrocketed.

Dennis Browne says they want the ability to fully scrutinize the spending plans of Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro and Newfoundland Power.

“We’ve seen some fantastic amounts that Newfoundland Power has… put into their budget over the last couple of years and we couldn’t even get a hearing on it,” says Browne. He says one was a $32 million expenditure for a new customer service system. “I don’t know if customers need that,” says Browne, “or if there weren’t other possibilities.”