FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
August 27, 2025
Statement by Matt MacFarlane on Maritime Electric’s Proposal and the Need for Real Energy Leadership
Charlottetown, PE – Islanders deserve a power system that is reliable, affordable, and able to incorporate future innovations. What we’re being offered by Maritime Electric is none of those things.
The utility’s proposed $334 million investment in two second-hand diesel generators, scaled down from an even more outrageous $427 million plan, will saddle Islanders with decades of rate hikes to pay for outdated technology that will only be used at most 2 per cent of the time. It’s not a plan for the future. It’s a desperate attempt to maintain the status quo, where corporate shareholders win and everyday Islanders lose.
This isn’t just a bad idea. It’s a failure of leadership.
Instead of pushing back, the Minister of Environment, Energy and Climate Action, Gilles Arsenault, has chosen to back Maritime Electric’s proposal calling it necessary and balanced. It is neither. It’s a last-century solution to today’s problem, and it locks PEI into high-emissions, high-cost, high-risk infrastructure at precisely the moment we should be doing the opposite.
Meanwhile, Nova Scotia has already established an independent energy system operator, one that exists to ensure decisions are made in the public interest, not in the boardrooms of private utilities. That’s what real leadership looks like. We should be working with our neighbours to develop a modern, regional energy strategy that protects ratepayers and accelerates our clean energy goals.
The Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC) also has a responsibility here. It must stop rubber-stamping Maritime Electric’s short-sighted proposals and start holding the company accountable to Islanders, not just to shareholders.
The Green Party caucus office has sought and been granted intervener status in the IRAC process because we believe Islanders need someone in the room who will fight for their long-term interests. We need to stop accepting expensive, outdated band-aid solutions – proposed by those who will benefit – and start demanding innovation, transparency, and value to ratepayers.
This government needs to start standing up to these large corporations and demanding better for Islanders. We pay far too much for an inferior product that doesn’t benefit our province in the long-term.
Matt MacFarlane
Leader of the Green Party of PEI
-30-
For media inquiries, please contact:
Katie Rankin
Chief of Staff
Office of the Third Party
Tel: (902) 213-6378
Email: kerankin@assembly.pe.ca