The report, “Powering Entrepreneurship”, provides readers a small business perspective on power utilities and the cost of electricity in Atlantic Canada. It indicates small business owners are noticing a trend in their power bills: energy costs are rising, even when consumption is not.
“Energy costs, in general, are a huge concern for our members,” says CFIB’s director of Provincial Affairs in New Brunswick, Denis Robichaud.
“During the past three years, the majority of our members in Atlantic Canada have seen large or moderate increases in energy costs. For about 85 per cent of our members, electricity is the main source of energy in their business. While the impacts of increasing energy costs are numerous, the majority of businesses have seen a loss of profits.
“Although other customer classes have also been hit with rate increases, small business customers in New Brunswick continue to pay more than their fair share, due to the issue of cross-subsidization.
“Small business owners already pay higher rates to subsidize lower rates for other customer classes, such as large industrial companies.
“In fact, it’s estimated that New Brunswick SMEs pay as much as 20 per cent more than the actual cost of service for the electricity they consume. This is unacceptable and NB Power needs to get this fixed as soon as possible.”
CFIB’s report also shows that small business owners would like to see programs that would help them improve the energy efficiency of their business. Since Efficiency NB was absorbed by NB Power in 2015, there have been no energy efficiency programs for small businesses, beyond an audit incentive.
“Small business owners understand the importance of improving energy efficiency, but they need help to do it. And at this moment, that support structure is simply non-existent in New Brunswick. We have asked NB Power’s CEO to develop a solid plan to support entrepreneurs who want to make improvements to their business in order to reduce electricity consumption, and we hope that his leadership on this file will result in concrete and positive measures,” adds CFIB’s director of provincial affairs Denis Robichaud. In its report, CFIB recommends:
– The government of New Brunswick needs to appoint a small business advocate to represent general service customers (such as small businesses) at energy rate hearings;
– Over the next five to 10 years, NB Power needs to address and fix the issue of cross-subsidization of classes, so that small business customers are not funding lower rates for other customer categories, such as large industrial companies;
– The New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board should consider that small businesses are already paying more than their actual cost for electricity before agreeing to NB Power’s 10-year objective;
– NB Power needs to develop a concrete program that would help small businesses improve the energy efficiency of their operations.
“The New Brunswick government has set clear goals to create jobs and foster economic growth in the province. As we all know, reaching those goals will be a big challenge. And that is why we collectively need to focus on creating an environment where businesses can grow and where entrepreneurial individuals are encouraged to live their dream and launch their first business. Reducing the power bill for small business owners and offering them the tools they need to reduce their consumption of energy are part of the solution,” says Denis Robichaud. Read “Powering Entrepreneurship”: http://cfib.ca/a8109e
About CFIB
CFIB is Canada’s largest association of small- and medium-sized businesses with 109,000 members across every sector and region, including 5,000 in New Brunswick.
