Listen up all Newfoundland and Labrador MHA's - for once - just once actually commit to due diligence.
Is Emera - a company we want to do business with?
The last post dealt with growing tensions in Nova Scotia and the party hearty Emera executives.
This post takes the party further south as we go "Island Hopping" with Emera.
What a mess Newfoundland and Labrador - and this is something we avoided years ago. Do not let this company into our province. They are already in and buying local companies - stop this now.
The Halifax Media Co-op contains a very telling story on Emera: Read Full Article Press Here
Here are some snippets:
Emera, the Nova Scotia-based company with a penchant for electricity
generation, moved fast onto the scene in Barbados, purchasing a 38 per
cent share in the largely nationally-owned BLP in May 2010, and another
41 per cent in January 2011. When shares in BLP were trading at $12 on
the Barbados stock market, Emera, which has been making ambitious
purchases and clocking record profits since 2010, offered BLP
shareholders $25 per share – an offer they could not refuse.
Later, an investigation by the Fair Trade Commission (FTC), Barbados'
regulatory body, suggested that BLP shares were devastatingly
undervalued, and should have been priced in the $40-50 range. Writers at
“Barbados Underground”, one of the nations' most read independent media
sites, suspected something was amiss with the deal. The FTC, as
regulator of BLP's power rates prior to the sale to Emera, would have
been well informed of BLP's assets and net worth. To emerge post-sale
saying that Emera had purchased a more valuable company than they
thought they had is suspicious indeed.
This isn't Emera's first Caribbean purchase, nor is it Emera's first
brush with controversy in the islands. The company already has a
controlling interest in the Grand Bahamas Power Company, the monopoly
service provider to about 20,000 customers on the island of Grand
Bahama. Purchased in 2009, its relationships on the island of Grand
Bahamas have been anything but easy. Operation Justice Bahamas (OJB), a
grassroots organization, has gathered over 5,000 signatures from
disgruntled customers who have cried foul over skyrocketing power bills.
OJB's actions forced the Bahamian government into action, and an
investigation into Emera's business practices, including hundreds of
allegations of overpricing, “guess-timation,” and destructive power
surges, is ongoing. Sarah MacDonald, Emera's chief officer in the
Caribbean, suggested that difficulties in meter reading were related to
the fact that over 8,000 Bahamians did not have a postal address, an
allegation that OJB dismisses as a “slap in the face.”
OJB is hoping the governmental investigation is the first step towards a class-action lawsuit against Emera.
“They are, in my words, driving the people into poverty. And they are
causing people to lose business.” says Troy Garvey of OJB.
“People are crying out every day” because of the skyrocketing power
bills in the Barbados, says Carson Cardogan. “They're writing letters to
the newspapers and the call-in programs. And it's having a very
deleterious effect on the lives of many Barbadians.”
For the moment, Bahamians and Barbadians, and Nova Scotians, find
themselves beholden to Emera's bottom line, a situation that to some –
such as Abitibi, NewPage and their hundreds of out of work employees –
has already become untenable. Nova Scotians will remember that two of
NSPI's largest industrial clients, prior to massive downsizing and
bailouts in the case of Abitibi, and bankruptcy in the case of Newpage,
made very public mention of the fact that escalating power bills were
driving them to ruin. While critics of the two companies suggested
mismanagement as the more likely cause of their dire straights, it does
beg the question, in Nova Scotia and beyond...
Is Emera bad for business?
Below please read a comment from a citizen of Barbados:
But Mr. Howe…you put a smile *smirk* on my face with your words.
Guess I am not such a “fraud” any more when I question what is going on
at Barbados Light & Power since Emera raised its head in these
parts. Heard through the grapevine too…and please! this might only be a
rumour but…Emera has stopped all their great and promised plans to
upgrade Barbados Light & Power’s plant – some of them literally in
mid-air for they were actually started under local contractors. Everyone
just sent home overnight…no reason, no date for recommencing, no
nutting. Because of this, the island is running out of power in a kind
of a way, and they (BL&P) “has a plan” – to shut off certain
pockets of areas across the island in order to save power…so homes and
businesses are sometimes going a whole day without electricity.
Of course, we all know rumours run rampant in these little islands…so
whilst I am it…here’s another…rumour also has it that Emera are the
ones basically demanding yet another hike in rates. Or else? No more
upgrading is the answer – that is what!!.
Oh! but that is not all …there are worse rumours…one being that Emera
saw in Barbados a gullible lot of people, easy pickings as they say,
and moved in swiftly to take the sheep by their ropes ’cause there were
no horns to worry about.
But then…what do I know…just a consumer is all I am…and one who every
time she screams about what kind of bills I am paying, is made to feel
that it is all because I do not wish to pay my same and love to just
keep power on willy-nilly. What gets to me is that yes! I have done all
the tests, turning off this and that and testing how fast the metre turn
round and round, had a professional electrician at my side too….and
there is absolutely nothing wrong with my equipment….even went away for a
month and turned everything off, pulled every plug and only left on one
energy saving fridge (well excuse me fuh dat!)…and still got an
enormous bill.
So to raise a bill from a fluctuating bill that approximates $300 a
month in 2009, to $700 in 2010, to $1,800 (US is half those amounts Mr.
Lowe) in 2011 (by the way the latter amount when the price of oil was
down, down, down) when all we at this residence have done is make
further adjustments to “save on energy” still does not seem right to me,
and personally I do not feel it takes a rocket scientist to figure that
out! Hence my veins bursting at the seams. Mostly I guess because I
doan like de smell of rat!!!
What is worse and even ‘chuped’ as we say in the islands…is that when
comparing with consumers who are using more, their bills are less in
many instances. Mind you, companies are suffering something even
worse…one business not too far from where I live got a whopping $23,000
bill this last month as compared to about half of that from the
previous. I see this as targeting certain homes and businesses on some
months in certain areas – a sort of “let’s play the dopes” strategy. The
‘interim bill’ being the great umbrella under which much is hidden. Let
us continue to confuse the sheep syndrome if you ask me. And all this
time, Emera and the BL&P seem not to be concerned whether Barbadians
will lose jobs when companies can no longer afford to run, or when
Barbadians like myself will have to rely on candles, gas stoves and no
fridge. Because they are now apparently saying “give the rates a hike or
else”. Back to the dark ages we go on this wonderfully developed
Caribbean island of ours and that will definitely augur well with our
tourism business…our biggest earner when it comes to dollars and no
sense!
Those who love Emera now, raise yuh hand!! Those who think that Emera
and BL&P gine get their way again, also raise yuh hand! I simply
rest my case and shall wait with bated breath to see what happens over
the next few weeks, months, possibly years.
By the way my fellow countrymen, the real worrying rumour is…there is
not enough power to deal with Barbados coming out of BL&P….hmmm.
___________________________________________________
So Newfoundlanders and Labradorians - please look very closely at this proposed deal and shut it down.
Do not let yet another offshore Corporate control any of our natural renewable resources.
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