The Premier's enemies list

Larry Hughes
AllNovaScotia.com
10 December 2025

Last week, Premier Houston (as Energy Minister, not the Premier) sent a letter to the Nova Scotia Energy Board, suggesting that Nova Scotia Power may be committing "regulatory fraud" and "a form of securities fraud" by overbilling some customers since the March cyber attack on the company.

This is but one example of how Nova Scotia Power has been a target of the Premier Houston's wrath since the Progressive Conservative's formed government in 2021, for example:

• Fining the company $10 million for not meeting its 40% renewables target, caused by delays in the completion of the Muskrat Falls project, something the company had no control over.

• Creating the province's Independent Energy Systems Operator (Bill 404), an expensive action that takes over Nova Scotia Power's procurement responsibilities and ability to control grid operations. In doing so it has stopped the company from, for example, purchasing natural gas generators that consequently may hinder the province's chances of reaching the 80% renewables target by 2030.

• Enacting Bill 212, stifling the company's ability to raise money, unnecessarily limiting the company's grid upgrading program and impacting its credit rating.

For the longest time, I could not understand the Premier's dislike of Nova Scotia Power. That was until learning what Becky Druhan, former Attorney General and MLA for Lunenburg West, said about PC caucus communication training: MLAs are encouraged to sniff out enemies and that "every story should have an enemy".

In the past, other Premiers and energy ministers might not have seen eye-to-eye with Nova Scotia Power, but problems were resolved and helped with the evolution of Nova Scotia's cleaner and more reliable electricity system.

However, with our current Premier, Nova Scotia Power is his principal enemy, regardless of the consequences.