N.B. Must Use, Not Export, Its Electric Power

You will have to excuse me, but I am completely at a loss to understand all of discussion these days of what it means for New Brunswick to be an 'energy hub'. A few weeks ago, Murray Elston, head of the Canadian Nuclear Association, was quoted as saying that New Brunswick's interest in building a second nuclear reactor at Lepreau should be "understood as far more than a chance to generate and export electricity". At the time, as I read those comments, I thought, finally, someone really understands the opportunity here.

However, he went on to talk about the "supply chain" and the "education and skills training" associated with having a second nuclear reactor in the province.

That is not the real opportunity. Not even close.

The real opportunity would be the ability to generate low-cost electricity for use in New Brunswick. It would be the opportunity to give New Brunswick a sustainable, long-term advantage over its competition across North America. That should be our focus, not just exporting electricity to be used for economic development elsewhere.

This is an absolutely critical issue. Because, in case you haven't noticed, the business case for business investment in New Brunswick has been disappearing lately. In the 1990s, we were promoting lots of available workers at reasonable salaries. We were also promoting a much lower operating-cost environment compared to most other North American locations. We promoted advantages in telecommunications as well.

How about 2008? We have record low unemployment. Because of the appreciation of the Canadian dollar we are now more expensive than many of our competitors, and we certainly are not promoting telecommunications anymore. So what are we selling? What is the case for business investment in New Brunswick?

Access to low-cost electricity will be a key competitive advantage for whatever jurisdictions can offer it for many years to come. Instead of concentrating all our efforts on supplying manufacturers in the United States with electricity produced in New Brunswick, we should look at using that electricity to attract those manufacturers here. And the opportunities go well beyond manufacturing.

Consider Labrador's Churchill Falls for a moment. Elston rightly pointed out that this was a bold move by Quebec to invest in hydroelectricity. He says "the huge investments Hydro Quebec made as one of the economic underpinnings for that province's transformation". He draws a parallel to investing in a second nuclear reactor in New Brunswick. But what Elston doesn't say is that, in addition to exporting power to the United States, Quebec also used this power to offer low-cost electricity to its large manufacturers and processors and, as a result, attracted dozens of projects and billions of dollars in private sector investment. To this day, Quebec has among the lowest electricity costs for large industrial users across North America.

Some folks relatively close to the issue tell me that this is more about the 'can't-do' attitude in New Brunswick than anything else. They say that no one wants to even think more broadly about this, and the focus is completely on negotiating long-term power contracts with U.S. electricity suppliers.

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