N.S. legislature opens: Opposition vows to pressure government on power bills
HALIFAX - Nova Scotia鈥檚 official Opposition says it will pressure the government to address affordability during the fall legislature sitting, starting by introducing legislation to lower power bills.聽
HALIFAX - Nova Scotia鈥檚 official Opposition says it will pressure the government to address affordability during the fall legislature sitting, starting by introducing legislation to lower power bills.聽
NDP Leader Claudia Chender told reporters Tuesday morning her party’s bill would issue a rebate to residents that would lower Nova Scotia Power bills by 10 per cent.
鈥淪ince Tim Houston became premier, families are paying an average of $400 more (annually) on their power bills. Everything is getting more expensive, and people need some relief,鈥 Chender said.聽
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
The rebate proposed by the NDP would cost about $140 million, Chender said.
Nova Scotia’s House of Assembly reopened Tuesday, one day after the government’s fiscal update projected a record deficit of $1.2 billion 鈥 a more than 70 per cent jump compared to the estimate in February’s budget.
Government has 鈥渟pent a billion dollars over budget for the last five years, and yet the costs of everything, particularly the things that are most essential to Nova Scotians’ lives, have gone up,鈥 Chender said.聽
The NDP leader said her party will also table a bill to protect consumer information, after data including social insurance numbers were stolen in a cyberattack on Nova Scotia Power earlier this year.
Nova Scotia Power said in May that about half of its customers 鈥 277,000 ratepayers 鈥 may have had personal information stolen by hackers. But earlier this month, the privately owned utility said all of its customers may be affected in some way.
The stolen data includes names, birth dates, email addresses, home addresses, customer account information, driver鈥檚 licence numbers and, in some cases, bank account numbers and social insurance numbers.
A report by Nova Scotia Power says the utility has no way of telling individual customers what specific information has been stolen from them.
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW
The third-placed Liberals also say lowering power bills is one of their priorities, as is pressing the government on the cost of living and on reining in spending.
The Progressive Conservative government, meanwhile, has been largely silent on the specifics of its legislative agenda.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 23, 2025.
To join the conversation set a first and last name in your user profile.
Sign in or register for free to join the Conversation