The New Brunswick government will take another crack at selling skeptical voters on the benefits of the $3.2-billion sale of its power system to Hydro-Québec, delaying the signing of the deal until it has held televised hearings on it.
New Brunswick Energy Minister Jack Keir said the government is still on track to complete a final agreement with Quebec by the end of March, and will then submit it to the legislature for scrutiny.
While he insisted there is growing support for the deal, Mr. Keir acknowledged that many voters want more information, and said the hearings could provide valuable input for regulatory policies that remain in provincial hands.
"I think it's a mixed bag - a lot of folks favour the deal but some don't understand the benefits and why we're doing what we're doing," he said in an interview.
After proposing to sell all of New Brunswick Power to Hydro-Québec last fall, Premier Shawn Graham scaled back the ambition, announcing a deal last month that would sell virtually all of the utility's generating assets but keep its transmission and distribution operations.
Donald Savoie, a political scientist at University of Moncton, said the government has fumbled the political selling of the New Brunswick Power deal from the outset, and will have a tough time bringing voters on side.
Mr. Savoie said the Graham government never communicated the seriousness of New Brunswick Power's financial problems before it dramatically unveiled the highly controversial proposed sale aimed at solving them.
"It was negotiated in the dark of night and the next minute they were telling people, 'We have a problem and we have a solution,' " Mr. Savoie said. "But in New Brunswick - and elsewhere in North America - people are in no mood to be told by elites that they know what is best for you."
The Progressive Conservative opposition is demanding the government shelve the Hydro-Québec deal until Mr. Graham faces the voters in a general election in September.
The hearing in the legislature "is no more than a public relations exercise," Conservative Leader David Alward said. "They've failed miserably in trying to persuade New Brunswickers that this is a good deal because New Brunswickers know better."