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The premier of Nova Scotia is calling for an investigation into how a major power utility has handled a cyberattack, saying residents should not be responsible for paying for Nova Scotia Power’s failures.
Tim Houston wrote to the chair of the Nova Scotia Energy Board, saying he wants the regulator to look into the way the private utility has billed customers since a system breach in March.
“The cyberattack was the not the fault of Nova Scotians, yet they are bearing the financial consequences of NSP’s (Nova Scotia Power) operational shortcomings,” Houston said in the letter he shared on social media Wednesday.
Nova Scotia Power, a subsidiary of Halifax-based Emera Inc., has said the personal and financial data belonging to 280,000 ratepayers was accessed by an unauthorized party as early as March 19. Since then, the utility has said it can no longer rely on remote meter readings and has chosen to estimate electricity consumption for some customers’ billing.
As a result, Houston said customers have been dealing with inflated bills, consecutive charges within short periods, and a lack of communication about billing adjustments. “It’s not lost on me or the board that knowingly overbilling would constitute regulatory fraud and misreporting revenue to the markets is a form of securities fraud,” Houston said in his letter.
Nova Scotia Power did not immediately return interview requests.
Wednesday morning, before Houston shared his letter, the official Opposition NDP held a press conference calling on Houston’s government to take meaningful action to help Nova Scotians dealing with inaccurate and unaffordable power bills.
Party leader Claudia Chender said that instead of helping Nova Scotians, the government has kicked 46,000 people out of eligibility for a home-heating assistance program and reduced the one-time rebate amount of that program by $200. The Houston government, Chender added, has also refused the NDP’s proposal to lower bills by 10 per cent through a new rebate “and has repeatedly refused to have government members come to committee to explain how they are going to make power more affordable and more reliable.”
Reached after Houston shared his letter, a spokesperson for the Nova Scotia NDP said his call for an investigation does not go far enough.
“Tim Houston needs to answer Nova Scotians’ questions, take urgent action to deal with escalating bills and launch a full review of Nova Scotia Power to restore public trust and to help people be able to afford heat and lights,” Chender said.
Danielle Fraser, a member of Westville, N.S., town council, said she’s glad the premier has asked for an investigation into Nova Scotia Power, but thinks Houston can do more. Fraser is behind a nearly 13,000-member Facebook group called “STOP THE NSPOWER INSANITY.”
She said she created the group in September 2024, prior to the cyberattack, after her power bill shot up three to four times what it had been a year prior. Fraser said the company told her their meters are correct and that she must have been using more energy than usual. She said she filed a complaint with the energy board, and then discovered “hundreds” of posts on Facebook from others who were confused by spikes in their power bills.
“I started the Facebook page for us to gather and compare stories and that. It grew steadily from there until the cyberattack, and then it skyrocketed,” she said.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Dec. 3, 2025.
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