N.B. Power's rate hearing is online, start to finish

 

 

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/nb-power-rate-hearings-online-9.7126504 

 

It won't be going viral, but N.B. Power's rate hearing is online, start to finish

Live viewership rarely exceeds 50 but EUB wants its proceedings to be more accessible

 

Robert Jones · CBC News · Posted: Mar 12, 2026 5:57 PM EDT

 

 

 N.B. Power's rate hearing in Fredericton is being conducted by a three-person panel of the Energy and Utilities Board led by its chair, Christopher Stewart, centre. (Roger Cosman/CBC)

N.B. Power's two-week rate hearing underway in Fredericton is not exactly gripping television, but for the first time, the New Brunswick Energy and Utilities Board has been streaming the proceeding and posting the daily seven-hour videos on YouTube.

Live viewership of the detailed examination of N.B. Power's request to raise its rates 4.75 per cent rarely exceeds 50 people during the day but the effort is part of a plan by the regulator to make its work more accessible to the public.

The regulator has been dabbling in "webcasting" for the past year in what it calls part of its mandate to "provide transparent and open processes."

Over the first four days of the hearing, it has posted 30 hours of content.

"The Board remains committed to promoting a greater understanding of its processes and the evidence presented in the matters which come before it," EUB chair Christopher Stewart wrote of the video initiative in the board's most recent annual report.

The EUB is already one of New Brunswick's most open government tribunals.  

Shelley Petit, on monitor, is with the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities and has been questioning N.B. Power witnesses from her home. (Roger Cosman/CBC)

It hosts an enormous document storage site that contains for public viewing — with some confidential exceptions — all of the evidence submitted in every case it has dealt with for the past 15 years. 

It also posts online transcripts and decisions in cases that stretch back to the early 1990s.

WATCH | How N.B. Power’s rate hearing gives the public a chance to participate:

 

Energy and Utilities Board hearings offer unique forum for public accountability

March 12|

Duration 2:33

 

Anyone willing to fill out the paperwork can have the chance to grill N.B. Power executives over proposed power rate increases.

In addition, the board has a tradition of welcoming ordinary citizens to participate in even major proceedings, giving them time and status equal to that of lawyers flown in to represent the province's largest industrial interests.

A regular participant in recent hearings has been Shelley Petit with the New Brunswick Coalition of Persons with Disabilities.

Five N.B. Power managers covering a variety of specialties from human resources to IT testified as a group at N.B. Power's rate hearing on Thursday. (Youtube)

Petit has been questioning witnesses in N.B. Power's current rate hearing live from home, spending more than an hour grilling N.B. Power senior vice-president Darren Murphy and chief financial officer Justin Urquhart on day one.

On day three, when Petit was in danger of missing her turn to question one panel of witnesses because of a medical appointment, Stewart pledged to rearrange matters so that wouldn't happen.

"If you're not [here] then before we're done, we'll circle back to you , or when we know you're back, we'll circle back to you, and we'll just deal with it in that fashion as we go," Stewart said to Petit  about not losing her turn.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Robert Jones

Reporter

Robert Jones has been a reporter and producer with CBC New Brunswick since 1990. His investigative reports on petroleum pricing in New Brunswick won several regional and national awards and led to the adoption of price regulation in 2006.

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