What they said

vs. What really happened

Broken Promises on Record

Charging an electricity tax

  • What they said...

    The demand-side management fee is an extra tax applied to your power bill to fund the operation of Efficiency Nova Scotia.

    In a June 2009 letter to the Utility and Review Board, the NDP wrote this electricity tax “… places the burden of DSM-related improvements too heavily on residential users and other rate classes.”

    They continued and argued that, “It should, rather, be based on the notion that [Nova Scotia Power] will bear the costs for making DSM-related investments in order to stabilize its long-term position in the market, and access to power for consumers of all classes.”

    The letter clearly indicates that an NDP campaigning for office understood that power rates were already causing trouble for consumers and that placing “… this surcharge on their power bills at this juncture would add unneeded and counter-productive costs to residential and business users.”

    Here is the text of the letter:
    NDP Letter Opposing DSM

    What really happened...

    After taking office in 2009, the Dexter government decided that Nova Scotians could now afford to pay a new tax on their power bills.

    A story in the October 24, 2009 Chronicle Herald reported that ratepayers would pay for the Dexter government’s “… $23-million electricity efficiency plan, which [NSP] will administer until the new agency takes it over.”

    A few days later, Herald columnist Marilla Stephenson wrote that the Dexter government was passing $23 million onto ratepayers and saved themselves $28 million in the process.

    In 2011 increased the revenue they took from this tax to $40 million and it will rise to $60 million in 2012 and $80 million in 2013.

    In 2009, when power was much cheaper than it is now, the NDP said Nova Scotians couldn’t afford another tax on your power bill.

    Now the Dexter government thinks you can afford to pay a new tax on power even though rates have increased this year by 10 per cent and will increase by an additional 20 per cent in the next two years.
That's what we call... A Broken Promise

© 2012 NS Liberal Party