In brief, the province's electricity system is a highly complete and complex system. Still, because of experience in other jurisdictions, one can now make the case that New Brunswickers no longer need to build generation capacity to ensure adequate supply. This is not to suggest that it was wrong for NB Power to invest in its current mix of assets. Indeed, one can understand why NB Power did what it did. New Brunswick is not blessed with large deposits of oil or natural gas and we have pretty well tapped all of the province's hydro potential.
Thermal generation is the most expensive, with oil-fired capacity being extremely expensive.
We know that, historically at least, natural gas was not available to NB Power. In our discussions of the status quo, we would not want to suggest that NB Power has been standing still for years and has been unwilling to promote change. Our definition of the status quo, as we already noted, speaks to the existence of a crown corporation to generate, transmit, distribute and market electrical power and to prohibiting others to produce electrical power in New Brunswick. NB Power has, in fact, introduced important changes. Each business unit has its own income statement, as well as performance and financial targets.