Recently, the provincial government announced an independent review of the Island Regulatory and Appeals Commission (IRAC). Energy Democracy Now! Co-operative welcomes it without reservation. IRAC touches almost every part of Island life, and a hard look at its role, structure, and responsibilities is overdue.

 

But a review is only as good as the changes it is prepared to recommend. For the last two years, EDN has been an intervener in the Commission’s energy proceedings. This has taught us something the review should not miss: The problem with energy regulation on Prince Edward Island is not the people who do the work, but the rules they are handed.  

 

The central flaw is what regulators call capital bias. Under the Electric Power Act, Maritime Electric earns its return on investment through infrastructure spending. The more capital it builds, the more it earns. There is no comparable reward for choosing a cheaper option. A diesel turbine pays the shareholder; saving the same megawatts through smarter planning does not. As long as that asymmetry sits in the law, the regulator can be diligent and still approve outcomes that cost Islanders more than they should.

 

Other Canadian provinces have already modernized. This review is a chance for Prince Edward Island to catch up, and four reforms should be at its centre.

 

First, the Commission should fund public-interest participation. When Maritime Electric files a major application, it arrives with lawyers and expert witnesses. Residents who foot the bill arrive with neither. Regulators across the country, at the federal and provincial levels, award costs to qualifying interveners. It’s time for us to do the same. 

 

Second, energy regulation deserves a dedicated home. IRAC’s scope is expansive. That breadth made sense in 1991, when the Commission was created, but the energy portfolio has grown significantly since then. A standalone energy board would give the increasingly complex energy portfolio the focus it needs.

 

Third, Islanders need a permanent advocate of their own. An advocate exists to do one thing: represent ordinary ratepayers, with professional capacity, every time a utility seeks more money. Prince Edward Island is one of the few provinces where residential customers have no voice. A statutory Consumer Advocate would change that.

 

Fourth, the law should say what the province has already decided. Prince Edward Island has legislated a target of net-zero emissions by 2040, yet none of the statutes that govern IRAC’s energy work so much as mention it. The regulator is asked to weigh costs and reliability, but not the climate commitment enacted by the legislature itself. This must change. 

 

None of this is radical. Each reform is already in force somewhere in Canada. The government deserves credit for opening this door. The measure of the review, though, will not be a singular report. It will be whether the law that governs how we plan, price, and pay for electricity actually changes. A regulator built for the last century cannot power the next one.