Nova Scotia’s Liberal caucus is again urging the province to order an independent review of Nova Scotia Power, saying thousands of customers are still without answers after receiving abnormally high bills in recent months.

The issue stems from a cyber breach earlier this year.

Since then, many residents have reported billing spikes far above their typical monthly costs. Nova Scotia Power executives appeared before a provincial committee last week to explain the situation, but Liberal MLA Iain Rankin says the responses didn’t go far enough.

Rankin said the scale of the problem alone justifies a deeper investigation.

“When you see 25 percent of Nova Scotians… that don’t have the appropriate meter reading, you’re talking about significant funds,” he said. “Hundreds and hundreds of dollars, potentially thousands of dollars per household that they’re sitting on.”

He said he wants to see a clear accounting of how much Nova Scotia Power has billed, collected, or deferred since the cyber disruption.

“That’s the whole reason why we’re looking at this independent review,” Rankin said.

He also pointed to several ongoing issues — including the cybersecurity incident, reports of billing overestimates, and repeated rate increases — as reasons to scrutinize the utility more closely. Rankin said rising fuel and power adjustment charges linked to years-old coal plants add to the concern.

“It’s time to open up the books, have a true independent look at Nova Scotia Power, [and] how they operate,” he said.

Rankin added that the utility “is not going to do that on their own,” and said the provincial government must step in.

“They need the government to tell them to do that,” he said. “We need to make sure that the government actually is doing their job and looking after the public interest.”