Power to the people

“Public fear isn’t something to be played with.” Robert Reich, political commentator, professor and author

As a reporter, you tackle things from a place of objectivity.

That doesn’t mean you don’t feel anything.

Last week, a Telegram reporter returned to the newsroom after covering a protest over increasing electricity rates in the province with tears in her eyes.

She had interviewed protesters who were legitimately worried whether they could survive another rate hike. People who will have to make difficult choices such as medication vs. heat. Food vs. heat. People who will be driven from the margins of poverty into full-blown homeless misery.

Their fears are grounded in harsh reality: with the looming completion of the Muskrat Falls hydroelectricity project, our electricity rates will rise in lockstep as the bills come due.

And, even worse than that, Newfoundland and Labrador Hydro is proposing to hike rates even before Muskrat Falls comes online to create some sort of financial shock absorber that might prevent rates from climbing as precipitously further down the road.

A project sold to the public as the “least-cost option” now has people living in dread that Muskrat Falls power will leave them with no option for staying afloat.

Back in 2012, when the government of Kathy Dunderdale was releasing rafts of reports expounding on the project’s many purported virtues, then Nalcor CEO Ed Martin had this to say:

“We understand how important electricity costs are to consumers. Our focus has been to determine the path forward that provides the lowest rates for consumers, and Muskrat Falls with a link to the Island will curb the volatility and growth we see in electricity rates today and ensure our rates are stable well into the future.”

Rates may well stabilize, of course — just at double or triple what they are now.

Roger Bouey, who attended the protest in St. John’s last Friday, voiced the fears of many when he said people won’t be able to afford a roof over their heads if higher electricity rates send housing costs soaring.

So, as real concerns mount, driving ordinary citizens to sign petitions, turn off their electricity for hours to send a message and take to the streets with placards, you can bet the issue has grabbed the attention of every single elected representative in the province, right? Wrong.

Friday’s protest attracted about 20 demonstrators outside the Public Utilities Board in the middle of a workday, but even fewer politicians.

Only Independent MHA Paul Lane — a former member of the Dunderdale administration who openly supported Muskrat Falls — bothered to show up. (Lane has since found his own personal road to Damascus and says he opposes Muskrat Falls).

Where were all the Liberals? All the Progressive Conservatives? All the Ndpers?

We know it’s summer, but surely they don’t all have firetrucks to deliver or self-promoting photo-ops to attend in the guise of constituency appearances.

What a crystal clear and unfeeling message to send to people whose lives and livelihoods will be tangibly damaged as a result of government decisions.

On Tuesday, provincial seniors’ advocate Suzanne Brake sounded the alarm, issuing a news release to say that uncertainty and trepidation about power rates are very real for older people often living on fixed and straitened incomes.

“Through the advocate’s travels she has heard that seniors are already choosing between food, medications, home care, vision care, dental care, and hearing aids, as well as choosing whether they can afford to operate a car or stay in their own home.”

The number of people in this province who can’t afford climbing electricity rates is far greater than the number of people who won’t bat an eye at higher bills.

Listen closely and you can hear a drumbeat of distress sounding.

Politicians had better take heed, or it might just get louder and start to sound a little more like desperation and discord.

Maybe more people making noise is what’s needed to wake politicians from their summer slumber.

There’s another protest outside the PUB, Friday at 10 a.m.