Nova Scotia Power is vowing to fix any billing issues connected to its cybersecurity breach as its CEO appeared before a legislative committee for a review of its services amid reports of soaring electricity bills.
Seven months after the cyberattack, the utility is still dealing with the fall out. The breach not only resulted in thousands of customers’ private data being leaked, but it also destroyed the company’s meter communication system.
“Securely restoring the communications link, we’re close to having that ready. Beginning to restore that in December,” CEO Peter Gregg told the committee Tuesday.
“The period from December to March (2026), we’ll be able to connect all customers meters to our billing engine.”
Stolen data from the cyberattack from this past spring included names, birth dates, email addresses, home addresses, customer account information, driver’s licence numbers and, in some cases, bank account numbers and social insurance numbers.
Several of the MLAs attending the meeting brought forward stories and concerns from their constituents about soaring power bills that seem inaccurate.
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“When we’re hearing regularly every day from Nova Scotians that have double — and I referenced a Nova Scotian that had triple on their estimate — that’s not OK. We didn’t even get a sufficient explanation as to why,” said Liberal House leader Iain Rankin after the meeting.
Nova Scotia Power said about 75 per cent of their meters have been physically checked by staff, but the remaining bills are estimates of what is owed.
Gregg vowed to MLAs that any mistakes — whether over or under payments — will be fixed.
“The meter’s throughout this event have recorded accurate usage. We’re confident the accurate energy usage on each meter is accurate. So once we connect those we can actually use the actual data,” he said.
He also said Nova Scotians will not be on the hook for the costs associated with the security breach, through a combination of insurance coverage and “some costs that we have expensed in this year already.”
Gregg also said it’s believed the attack was perpetrated by a group based in Russia, and that it was an “unprecedented, sophisticated and targeted attack.”
Moving forward, the utility is no longer collecting social insurance numbers, and they’re on track to completely remove all existing numbers from their system by March 31, 2026.
Opposition leaders are calling for an independent review.
“There are still a lot of questions. What is it that government is doing to help Nova Scotians with the big challenges that have been revealed by this breach, the ongoing affordability challenges, the ongoing concerns about privacy?” said NDP Leader Claudia Chender.
Meanwhile, PC MLA Kyle MacQuarrie hinted more support from the province around energy affordability could be coming.
“I would say tools are being looked at and that the minister of energy will have more to say about that on Thursday,” MacQuarrie said.
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