A nice January weekend just passed, lot of sun, the wind took the edge off when out in the open but all in all a great one.

There is a warming trend forecast for Tuesday Wednesday; things should be suitably frozen for it not to make travel anymore dangerous.

I happened to see another NL Hydro bill for the month passed [to January 2, same as mine and others].

The difference in this bill was that it was still ESTIMATED, while mine was not.

So we have bills in the month of January that are catching up with past NON readings and that had been ESTIMATED. Bills that are lower than last months. Bills that have 37 days in the month. Bills that are high [due to the 37 day month and are still ESTIMATED, and they are only the ones I am aware of.

Now I know we were told by our MHA on Friday that the whole shemozzle of NL Hydro billing will be revisited and corrections made and apologies given. That said I think things need to go further, I think an independent auditor needs to look at the whole operation of billing policies and procedures, or whatever the appropriate jargon is, at NL Hydro.

On top of the billing problems we are still having many power outages, some short little blips, some up to 20 minutes to half an hour.

The operations of NY Hydro Labrador Division need a good looking into also IMO. After all we were given assurances that were not delivered; mistakes are being repeated to the detriment of the consumer. Not that this has not happened before and was cleaned up for awahile, but to go back to the old ways of the past is just not good enough.

It is the time old negative attitudinal problem that develops within some government departments and even in some private businesses towards the coastal communities and to native communities.

One would have thought with the creation of Nunatsiavut that things would change, not so.