In 1995, the nuclear plant was offline for almost nine months to address sagging pressure tubes in its reactor.

Couture said N.B. Power is hoping costs caused by the generator trouble, whatever they amount to, won't have to be fully paid by customers and the company is "exploring options" like "potential recovery through corporate insurance policies" as an alternative.

Breakdowns at Lepreau are notoriously expensive.   

Depending on the time of year and market prices to supply replacement energy, the cost of an unscheduled outage can range between $1 million and $4 million per day.

Since last year, those amounts are charged directly to customers on their bills as a "variance account recovery" rather than being absorbed as a financial loss by the utility.

N.B. Power's costly oil-fired generating station at Coleson Cove in Saint John was called upon to replace electricity normally supplied by the Point Lepreau nuclear generating station. (Roger Cosman/CBC)

Currently, N.B. Power customers are paying a three per cent surcharge on every monthly bill to pay for previously accumulated financial misfortunes, including another major breakdown at Lepreau that occurred in December 2022.

That lasted 35 days and added more than $100 million to the variance account set up for customers to pay off.

If insurance does not cover the recent Lepreau breakdown costs, those will be added to the variance account. N.B. Power customers will not have to pay more than the current three per cent surcharge on their bills but those payments will be extended indefinitely, potentially for years.

Earlier this year the outstanding balance in the variance account exceeded $200 million. The customer surcharge was expected to raise $54.1 million to apply against that. 

In explaining the decision to charge customers directly, N.B. Power said on its website it could no longer afford to deal internally with the cost of unbudgeted expenses like those caused by troubles at Lepreau.

"Until now, N.B. Power had to absorb any variances, whether they were positive or negative," it wrote

N.B. Power president Lori Clark and chief financial officer Darren Murphy leaving an Energy and Utilities Board hearing in June. The two testified that problems at Lepreau in recent years have been dragging on the utility's finances. Within weeks, they were dealing with another problem at the plant. (Pat Richard/CBC)

"In recent years, N.B. Power has experienced primarily negative variances, which has become increasingly challenging for us."

In testimony at New Brunswick's Energy and Utilities Board earlier this year, just before Lepreau's generator problem surfaced, N.B. Power president Lori Clark said the cost of reliability problems at the nuclear plant has been the source of many of the utility's poor financial results in recent years.

"In most of those years there would have been some challenges with the assumptions that were made around Lepreau's performance, which could have in some cases wiped out our earnings," she said.

Designed to run at more than 90 per cent capacity in good years, Lepreau's recent output has been particularly poor, with the plant operating at 57 per cent capacity in the 2023 fiscal year and what is likely to be close to 32 per cent this year.  

Despite those troubles, Lepreau remains N.B. Power's lowest-cost generator when it's running, and the utility is unwavering in its belief that ongoing maintenance and upgrades will eventually overcome its recent struggles.   

To pay for itself the plant needs to operate until 2042, a goal the utility believes is achievable.

Lepreau "remains a cornerstone of New Brunswick's energy infrastructure," the utility said in announcing its return to service last week.

On Dec. 10, the Liberals halted debate on the bill, which they had promised to pass before Christmas.

Instead they sent the legislation to committee hearings with public witnesses early next year, a breach of their campaign promise to eliminate the adjustor "immediately."

Legacy told reporters the next day that there was "give and take" on Liberal platform commitments.

After the Liberals halted debate on the promised carbon adjustor bill, Energy Minister René Legacy said there was 'give and take' on Liberal platform commitments. (Hina Alam/The Canadian Press)

He said it had recently become clear to him that eliminating the adjustor could shift the carbon cost from consumers to small locally owned gas stations.

"This time I really had the associations come in, I said 'I'll listen,' I want to work with them to see how we can make this work to get affordability to New Brunswickers," he said.

"They said we need to look at this in different ways."

Asked for comment, Robichaud referred CBC News to a statement issued by the association Friday confirming it met with with Legacy.

Mike Hammoud, the association's vice-president for Atlantic Canada, said it's normal to hire "specialists" to deal with governments but added he believed it was the compelling information the organization provided that persuaded the Liberals.

Besides the convenience store association, Legacy also met with the Canadian Fuels Association, the Oil Heat Association of New Brunswick and Irving Oil about the legislation, a government spokesperson said. 

The previous Progressive Conservative government had argued for two years that the adjustor was needed to prevent the carbon cost from hitting small retailers, many of which have thin profit margins.

Mike Holland, who was the PC energy minister, said in June 2023 that "mom and pop shops, small convenience stores with a gas pump out front" might "shut down" with no adjustor in place.

   PC energy minister Mike Holland said in June 2023 said small stores 'with a gas pump out front' might shut down with no adjustor in place. (Ed Hunter/CBC)

Legacy told reporters Dec. 11 that he had heard Holland make that argument in the past, "but it wasn't intensified" the way it was by industry groups when they met with him.

Eliminating the carbon adjustor was one of the signature Liberal campaign promises on making life more affordable for New Brunswickers.

The adjustor amount fluctuates each week and is 4.03 cents this week. 

The PCs argued when they created it in 2022 that it was necessary because of New Brunswick's regulated gas market, which sees the EUB setting a maximum per-litre price each week.

Without the adjustor added to the EUB formula, retailers might be stuck absorbing the cost of the federal regulations.

Since being lobbied, Legacy has echoed that argument.

"Don't forget that small retailers are New Brunswickers also, and we don't want to create chaos in that industry," he said last week.

Sending the repeal bill to the legislature's law amendments committee also allows for a discussion on whether to eliminate the price-setting regulations altogether, Legacy said.

That would allow the cost of the regulations to be folded back into the price of gas at the pumps but without consumers being able to see it.

"I don't want to prejudge what the results of the committee are going to be," Legacy said.

Another lobbyist who registered last month to lobby the government, Jake Enwright of Syntax Strategic, said he was representing the Canadian Energy Marketers Association.

Enwright, a former staffer to former Conservative Party of Canada leader Andrew Scheer, registered Nov. 22. His client wasn't among the groups Legacy met with, according to the list provided by the minister's spokesperson.

Premier Brian Gallant has become the third straight premier to publicly support the idea of the registry — though he acknowledged this month he wasn’t sure why it still doesn’t exist.

“I’ve actually asked the [Executive Council Office] to give me an update on exactly where it is and why it might have stalled,” he said.

​Liberal Premier Shawn Graham first promised a registry in 2007, but never put one in place.

The Progressive Conservative government of David Alward passed the Lobbyists’ Registration Act in May.

But to take effect, the cabinet must proclaim the act and write regulations that will lay out how it operates.

It appears the Alward cabinet did not get around to that before losing power in the Sept. 22 provincial election.

David Alward's Progressive Conservatives passed a lobbyist registration law but it never came into effect. (CBC)

“We very much support a lobbyist registration act,” the premier said on Nov. 7.

“I’ve supported that since I became leader of the party, so we want to understand why it hasn’t been enacted and why the follow-through hasn’t happened … and what barriers remain.”

The act would require lobbyists — professionals who work on behalf of clients seeking to influence government policy — to register publicly. Violators would be fined.

“It is desirable that public office holders and the public be able to know who is attempting to influence government,” the act says.

Shawn Graham promised a lobbyist registration act seven years ago, but he never set one up. (CBC)

Similar registries exist for the federal government and in most provinces. Many such registries require lobbyists to disclose who they meet and what topics they discuss.

Doug Tyler, a former Liberal cabinet minister whose work as a lobbyist has been controversial in the past, says he supports the registry and hopes it’s established soon.

“It’s there for everybody to see, it’s been a long time coming and they should do it as quickly as possible,” he says.

Not about knowing people, lobbyist says

Tyler, a former minister of natural resources and deputy premier, works part-time as a consultant for J.D. Irving Ltd.

​In that role, he’s been involved with a local committee in the Grand Lake-area working on labour shortage issues.

When the Liberals were last in power, Tyler was listed in invoices as working as a lobbyist for Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd. when it was trying to build a second nuclear reactor at Point Lepreau.

Tyler had been Liberal premier Shawn Graham’s campaign manager in 2006, worked on the Graham government’s transition team and later returned to work for Graham as a deputy minister.

Tyler says he believes his work would be subject to the Lobbyists’ Registration Act.

“From time to time, not on a regular basis, I would have contact with government,” he says.

Surprisingly enough, there are a lot of people who aren’t quite sure how government works.

- Doug Tyler

“Sometimes that’s at the bureaucratic level and sometimes that’s at the political level, so I would suspect that would be covered by the registry.”

He says the role of a lobbyist — or “government relations” consultant as it is known in the business — is less about “knowing people” and using those connections than about drawing on the person’s expertise and experience.

“Surprisingly enough, there are a lot of people who aren’t quite sure how government works,” he says.

“It’s about how government works and how you advance a particular view, or purpose, that you’re working on.”

J.D. Irving first approached Tyler in 2011 about labour shortages at its Chipman mill.

That led to him getting involved with the local committee trying to address the difficulty many employers — including Irving — were having finding workers in the area.

The committee, in turn, has met several times with government officials, including when the Alward PCs were in office.

Tyler says there’s no reason the public shouldn’t know about that.

“I have no problem saying who I work for,” he says.

“I’m very proud of what we do and proud of the community I work with. If there’s a registry and I’m required to register, I’ll register.”

Timeline: 7 years of debate and counting

Both the Liberal government of Shawn Graham and the PC government of David Alward promised a lobbyist registry law, but failed to fully implement such a law.

Here’s a timeline of the debate over a lobbyists’ registry in New Brunswick:

June 2007: The Liberal government of Premier Shawn Graham promised a lobbyist registry as part of its official response to the Commission on Legislative Democracy, a study commissioned by the previous PC government of Bernard Lord.

“This new lobbyist registry will help ensure that New Brunswickers know who is lobbying their government and for what purpose,” Government House Leader Stuart Jamieson said.

June 2008: CBC News, using the federal Access to Information Act, revealed that Atomic Energy of Canada Ltd., hired Revolution Strategy’s Doug Tyler as a lobbyist to support its pitch to build a second nuclear reactor in New Brunswick.

Tyler had been Premier Shawn Graham’s campaign manager.

December 2008: Tyler returned to work in Graham’s office as deputy minister of strategic planning, provoking criticism from the Opposition PCs.

Graham said he was looking at setting up a shared, regional lobbyists’ registry with Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland and Labrador.

May 2009: With no progress on a regional registry, the Graham Liberals said they’ll consider voting in favour of a bill introduced by the PC Opposition to set up a provincial registry.

November 2009: The legislature’s law amendments committee met to hear from the public about the PC lobbyist registry bill, but no one showed up. Later that month, the bill died when the legislature prorogued for a new session and Throne Speech.

June 2, 2011: The PC government of Premier David Alward introduced a new bill to set up a lobbyist registry.

“Lobbyists will need to be registered, they will need also to name the companies that they are working for, and they will also need to name the ministers and the departments they have met,” said Deputy Premier Paul Robichaud.

June 10, 2011: Eight days after introducing the bill, Robichaud announced it will not be passed by the end of the session.

"We're having some issue with the technology,” he said. “The software will not be ready for lobbyists to get registered.”

Liberal MLA Victor Boudreau suggested the PCs were trying to avoid being transparent. “They introduced it to be able to say they introduced it, but they haven't done anything with it since,” he said.

January 2012: CBC News revealed that Angie Leonard, the sister of Energy Minister Craig Leonard, had been hired as a lobbyist by the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

The information came to light thanks to the federal government’s lobbyist registry, where Angie Leonard was required to register.

November 2013: Deputy Premier Paul Robichaud reintroduced the lobbyist registry bill in the Legislature.

“Every lobbyist will have an obligation to register their company, register their name, and also to register their clients to the office of the ombudsman,” he said. “That information will be available and public through the website of the province of New Brunswick.”

May 2014: The Legislature gave final approval to the lobbyist registry bill, passing it into law during a rush of votes at the end of the session. The Liberals accused the PC government of waiting until the last minute.

The Tories "didn't want to, within their mandate, respect the legislation that they brought in at the last minute,” says Liberal MLA Roger Melanson. The bill received Royal Assent, but cannot take effect until cabinet proclaims it and passes regulations.

Nov. 7, 2014: New Liberal Premier Brian Gallant said he asked the civil service “to give me an update on exactly where it is and where it might have stalled.” Gallant reiterated his support for the lobbyist registry.

“We want to understand why it hasn’t been enacted and why the follow-through hasn’t happened,” he said.