A letter to Mr. Terry O'Neil, Managing Editor of the Chronicle-Herald, regarding the changes taking place in Nova Scotia's electricity sector. (18/01/2005)

Over the past several months the Chronicle-Herald has failed to offer any analysis or in-depth coverage on two issues that affect most, if not all, Nova Scotians: the Electricity Act and electricity rate structures. This is an unhealthy situation, given the changes that are taking place in both the North American and Maritime electricity markets.

Of course, it's not that your newspaper hasn't had the opportunity to inform your readers of these issues:

• On 4 November 2004, I submitted a letter to the Chronicle-Herald explaining that the real beneficiary of the Electricity Act was Nova Scotia Power: the Act requires NSPI to open itself to limited competition and, in return, it becomes FERC compliant, allowing it to sell electricity to New Brunswick and beyond.

• On 24 November 2004, one of my graduate students, Mr. Alain Joseph, presented an alternative residential rate structure to the NSPI rate hearings. Your newspaper and one of your reporters had been sent a press release detailing the advantages of the proposed rate structure prior to the presentation.

In the first instance the letter was not published, and in the second, the proposal was not reported. As a result, you have signally failed to inform Nova Scotians of important issues that directly concern them.

It's your newspaper and I have no intention of telling you how to run it, but in light of the above, you might want to change the contents of your Newspapers in Education website that states, "The newspaper is a continuing source of information for all of us".