Opposition Leader emphasizes Government responsibility to control electricity costs for affordability

Government has a responsibility to not only set policy and put regulations in place, but ensure the cost of electricity is controlled so that it remains affordable, says Opposition Leader Ralph Thorne.

Thorne, who was addressing the House of Assembly yesterday when the Ministry of Energy and Business Development, led by Senator Lisa Cummins, was up in the Estimates, said this was important because the price of energy impacted everything.

“Unless you control the cost of energy it will affect, adversely affect, businesses and, of course, if we don’t control the cost of energy we do not also control prices,” Thorne said.

He said failure to control prices impacted the demand for products and “when demand is down the economy contracts”. The Opposition Leader said in spite of policy, it was also important to maintain citizen confidence in the process. He referred to the Fair Trading Commission (FTC) which was set up to regulate prices in the energy sector. “Government must understand that it is trustee for the interests of the people and if the people for one second begin to believe that Government is protecting the interests of Barbados Light & Power, then the people will lose faith and confidence in the Government, in spite of the existence of the Fair Trading Commission,” Thorne said.

He said in a country where the sun shone more than 350 out of 365 days, the people must be disappointed with the Government’s failure to provide access to the grid after touting the renewable energy goals of 2030, but there “may be corporate and private individuals who enjoy the privilege of access”.

“So this Government must now be encouraged to move closer by its policy to a situation in which every citizen, every house top, every roof in this country can have a photovoltaic system and can have cheaper energy,” the Opposition Leader said.

He said this access would allow citizens to lower the cost of electricity which was “horrendously high” and use those savings to invest in the education of their children or just to buy food.

“I’ve said before, the Fair Trading Commission is a regulatory body, the Government is a body that creates policy and the people of this country are requesting of this Government a more aggressive policy towards cheaper electricity prices.”

(SAT)