Maritime Electric still waiting for P.E.I. government to expand right of way | CBC News

More than a year after post-tropical storm Fiona knocked out almost all of P.E.I.’s electrical grid, there’s been no word from the provincial government on when it might expand access for utilities to cut trees along their power lines.

Officials with Maritime Electric discussed the need to expand the right of way with MLAs at a pair of standing committee meetings in the weeks and months after Fiona.

At the time, the company said it hoped to expand its right of way this year by three to four metres, which would mean it wouldn’t have to get private landowners’ permission to trim trees that much further into their properties.

A report Maritime Electric filed with P.E.I.’s electricity regulator in January included expanding the right of way on a list of steps the company planned to take “prior to… the next storm event.”

But this week, utility CEO Jason Roberts told CBC News the expansion hadn’t yet happened.

When asked why, Roberts responded: “I think that’s a question for the province.”

Environment Minister Steven Myers said the province is “looking at changing… how the trees can be trimmed, how long they can be trimmed, how far back they can be.”

But when asked why that hasn’t happened yet, Myers pushed back.

“There’s a number of immediate issues that have to be dealt with. There’s only so many people who work with government,” he said. 

There’s a landowner issue there too, right? So you go on out and tell landowners that we’re going to let people cut their trees way into the centre of their lawn.— Steven Myers

“There’s a landowner issue there too, right? So you go on out and tell landowners that we’re going to let people cut their trees way into the centre of their lawn.”

Myers said the process to make the change is underway, but as to when a new policy might be in place, he said: “It takes as long as it takes.”

A spokesperson for the department told CBC News on Thursday that the minister said he would have more on the matter to share the following week. 

Budget to be increased

Maritime Electric has applied to the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission to increase electricity rates to recoup the $37 million it spent to restore power after Fiona.

The application shows that clearing trees made up a significant proportion of those costs, accounting for 81 per cent of the $19 million in capital expenses included in the total. 

The other 19 per cent was spent replacing broken utility poles, transformers and other equipment.

Given that the company has in the past been taken to task by IRAC for spending far less on trimming trees within its existing right of way compared with other utilities in the region, Maritime Electric plans to increase its budget for vegetation management.

Liberal MLA Robert Henderson, for one, wants to see the utility cutting from a wider swath of trees when that happens, saying a reliable energy supply is a “common good” the government must safeguard.  

“Most landowners are probably more than receptive in allowing tree-cutting of dangerous trees that could fall on the lines, so get on with the process,” he said Thursday.

“If there was legislation that needed to be done, by all means bring that legislation forward in the legislature.”

New energy strategy coming 

The provincial government conducted consultations around a new energy strategy in the spring. It’s not clear if those consultations could lead to recommendations to expand the right of way around power poles, and the department didn’t respond to an email from CBC Thursday.

The original timetable for the development of the new strategy indicated it would be released in the fall of 2023, but that appears to have been delayed.

Myers’ mandate letter from Premier Dennis King, issued in August, tasks the minister with “working with utility providers [to] ensure proper preventative measures are in place to reduce power outages and build capacity to increase restoration efforts when power outages do occur.”