NB Power to offer leniency for vulnerable populations to avoid winter disconnections

NB Power has announced a new pilot program that will offer more leniency for vulnerable populations who have difficulty paying their bills so that disconnections don’t happen during the winter months.

The program will be in effect Dec. 1 to March 31, 2026 and will apply to customers who meet one of these requirements:

• Aged 70 and above
• Have confirmed medical issues requiring equipment powered by electricity
• Have annual household incomes less than $70,000

Customers who qualify must still continue to make “some payment” each month to keep their accounts in good standing.

“We’ll be working with our contact centre to ensure that the payment arrangements that we put in place are ones that customers can afford, and they may not be nearly as high as they have been in the past,” said NB Power CEO, Lori Clark.

The chair of the province’s coalition of persons with disabilities says having electricity can be a matter of life or death for those with disabilities.

“We lost members last year who passed because their power was turned off, their equipment no longer worked, and it led to their death,” said Shelley Petit. “We can’t have that happen again.”

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NB Power says they will work directly with each customer to find solutions, including payment assistance programs or equalized payments plans.

The initiative was prompted by recommendations from the Vulnerable Populations Committee, which launched in May to assist customers who had trouble paying their bills. The committee includes representatives from NB Power, community groups, and the provincial government.

NB Power data from spring 2018 to spring 2024 shows they disconnected power to an average of 3,603 households a year due to non-payment.

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The question of whether NB Power should be able to cut service during the winter months has recently been brought up by opposition parties at the Legislature.

“I had a family — a single mom with five kids — in my office because their power was cut off in the middle of January. That is not humane and I believe it is up to this government to push NB Power to ensure that does not happen,” said PC MLA Kris Austin on Nov. 21.

“If you’re doing that in the coldest of winter months, that’s a terrible time to do it.”

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Energy Minister Minister René Legacy said last week that NB Power won’t turn off electricity if the temperatures drop below -10 C or during adverse weather events.

“NB Power doesn’t want to disconnect people. The problem is sometimes they just can’t contact the customers,” he said.

Clark wouldn’t say specifically why a complete ban on winter disconnections isn’t being considered.

“Disconnect is always a last resort. And we will have our contact centre agents who are trained acting with empathy to ensure that disconnect is a last resort,” she said.

“During the winter months, we have certain criteria around even when we do disconnect around temperatures and those sorts of things.”