Paul Martin Says Nb Power Cut Corners on $2.8 Billion Plant
Nb power exposed New Brunswick power and energy customers to $55.1 million in possible compensation costs when it signed a 25-year deal with U.S. firm ProEnergy before the capital project had regulatory approval, auditor general Paul Martin said Tuesday.
Martin said the provincially owned utility "did not proceed in the clearest or most disciplined order, increasing governance, financial and regulatory risk for New Brunswick power and energy customers". He said the decision-making around the 500-megawatt natural gas plant proposed for rural southeastern New Brunswick moved ahead without enough discipline, and that the utility could have been forced to pay ProEnergy for early construction costs if the project had been denied.
ProEnergy Deal Before Approval
July 2025 was the turning point in the process: NB Power signed the 25-year agreement with ProEnergy, then waited for the Energy and Utilities Board to determine in October 2025 that the capital project needed its approval first. The plant still required provincial energy regulator approval last week and remains subject to a later decision from the Liberal government after the environmental assessment.
Paul Martin said the utility made "critical choices … without addressing significant risks." He also said, "I’m not seeing sufficient documentation for a $2.8-b". For customers, the issue is not just the plant itself; it is the order of approvals, because the wrong sequence left the utility exposed before the project had cleared the full regulatory path.
500 Megawatts and $55.1 Million
$55.1 million is the specific early-construction exposure Martin identified if the regulator had rejected the plant after NB Power had already signed the contract. The auditor also said the utility selected equipment without studying alternatives and did not do its homework before committing to the deal.
Nearly half a million customers are attached to that risk through a utility that Martin said moved ahead without the clearest order. NB Power and its board said the decisions were made during a period of heightened system risk, and the company has framed the plant as an urgent response to future shortages as coal and oil facilities retire.
New Brunswick Approval Gap
One week after the regulator approved the project, the report shifted the focus to governance: what happens when a $2.8 billion project is advanced before the approvals are lined up. That sequence matters because the contract terms already exist, while the last major provincial decision still has to follow the environmental assessment.
Andrew MacGillivray and Lori Clark said the utility had checked with the energy board before signing the contract that the project could only move ahead after regulatory approval. Martin’s report leaves that explanation in the record, but it also puts the onus on NB Power to show why a 25-year obligation was signed before the full approval path had been cleared.
