{"id":60593,"date":"2025-11-26T21:59:23","date_gmt":"2025-11-27T01:59:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thelaker.ca\/?p=60593"},"modified":"2025-11-26T21:59:23","modified_gmt":"2025-11-27T01:59:23","slug":"n-s-ndp-houston-government-passing-the-buck-on-high-power-bills","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/?p=60593","title":{"rendered":"N.S. NDP: Houston government passing the buck on high power bills"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56506&#8243;]<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>HALIFAX:<\/strong> On Tuesday afternoon Nov. 25, the PC members of the Natural Resources Committee voted against the NDP\u2019s request to have department officials answer Nova Scotians\u2019 questions about the government\u2019s role in addressing Nova Scotian Power\u2019s over-billing, high bills and handling of the data breach.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Months after a cybersecurity breach that put the personal information of hundreds of thousands of Nova Scotians at risk, many Nova Scotia Power customers are reporting that they are being charged double their actual usage on their power bills. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Since the Houston government was elected, the average Nova Scotian is paying $400 more per year for their power bills and recent data from Statistics Canada show that electricity costs in Nova Scotia have increased at more than twice the rate of the national average over the past year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the Houston government refusing to answer questions or take responsibility for Nova Scotians\u2019 high power bills, there are actions they could take today to make the cost of power more affordable for all Nova Scotians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>ADVERTISEMENT:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56530&#8243;]<\/div>\n\n\n\n<p>So far the Houston government has ignored the NDP\u2019s practical ideas to lower power bills, protect people\u2019s privacy, and bring more accountability to Nova Scotia Power. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Those ideas include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A 10 per cent rebate on every Nova Scotian\u2019s power bill;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A low-income power rate to ensure those most in need won\u2019t fall behind;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Legislation to protect Nova Scotians\u2019 private information and allow people to recover their money if they\u2019re harmed financially after a data breach;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A comprehensive ownership and regulatory review of Nova Scotia Power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>\u201cThe Houston government likes to pretend that they have nothing to do with soaring power bills, and they can\u2019t help Nova Scotians struggling with the cost of power, but that\u2019s just not the case,&#8221; said Opposition Leader Claudia Chender in a release. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The sky-high bills, the privacy breach, the overcharging \u2013 all of these are issues that this government should be addressing. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;The Premier just appointed himself as Energy Minister, but he\u2019s refusing to answer any questions about what his government is doing about the cost of energy or how he regulates the utility. Nova Scotians deserve a government that tackles our challenges head on and isn\u2019t afraid to answer questions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;They deserve a government that works day and night to make sure they can keep their power, heat, and lights on through the winter.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"alignnormal\">[metaslider id=&#8221;56509&#8243;]<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>HALIFAX: On Tuesday afternoon Nov. 25, the PC members of the Natural Resources Committee voted against the NDP\u2019s request to have department officials answer Nova Scotians\u2019 questions about the government\u2019s role in addressing Nova Scotian Power\u2019s over-billing, high bills and handling of the data breach.\u00a0 Months after a cybersecurity breach that put the personal information [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[957],"tags":[3124,9792,9793,1378,260,9794,2517],"class_list":["post-60593","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-claudia-chender","tag-data-breach","tag-high-bills","tag-n-s-ndp","tag-n-s-power","tag-over-billing","tag-premier-tim-houston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60593","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=60593"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/60593\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/35774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=60593"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=60593"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging-z.thelaker.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=60593"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}