Hydro-Québec power linesJACQUES BOISSINOT
The proposed sale of New Brunswick's public power company to Hydro-Québec is fraught with questions about labour relations and job security, the union that represents more than 2,200 employees of NB Power said Friday.
Ross Galbraith, a spokesman for Local 37 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, said he has tried to get details about the tentative agreement for two weeks but no one has provided any.
Two weeks ago, the New Brunswick government signed a memorandum of understanding to sell the major assets of the debt-laden utility, including transmission lines and the Point Lepreau nuclear power plant, for almost $4.8-billion.
"To suggest NB Power is a financial drain on the province is an attack on its employees and that's not fair," Mr. Galbraith told a news conference.
"NB Power, especially after cutbacks of the last decade, is a pretty lean organization and the employees work hard to maintain a level of service reliability that is the envy of many other utilities."
Mr. Galbraith also said there are major questions about the future of employees at three fossil fuel burning plants in Dalhousie, Belledune and Coleson Cove.
Union lawyer Ron Pink says there's nothing in the deal to legally guarantee that existing collective agreements would be respected.
"The MOU says that the collective agreements will be respected, but respect is not a word that has much legal meaning," Mr. Pink said.
"There are no guarantees, no commitments, no undertakings that the collective agreements will be transferred in every respect."
Conservative energy critic Jeannot Volpe accused the Liberal government of not knowing the agreement it signed.
"I have been on three different debates with three different ministers and none of them knows what's in the agreement," Mr. Volpe said.
"So who knows what's in the agreement? This is scary."
But Premier Shawn Graham has touted the deal as a boon to New Brunswickers, saying it would free the province of a large financial albatross, freeze power rates for residents and lower them for industrial customers.
Mr. Graham is aiming to have the deal finalized by the end of March.
NB Power, a Crown corporation, was created by New Brunswick's legislature in 1920.