We have just had our third power outtage of the day... 1 long, two short.
A few years ago Nova Scotia Power was privatized. Maintenance was reduced to bare bones and performed by "contractors"... most of whom are former employees kicked to the curb following privatization.
Bur hey, they're earnings are breaking records in spite of the deterioration in service.
Why, you ask?
They have a province-wide monopoly and thus don't give a tinker's damn about providing an essential service.

We've had the same nonsense here in Southern Ontario. Our privately owned power company is a nasty beast more predisposed to surcharging late payments by $31 than they are to providing service. I've had more black-outs and brownouts since I moved here 5 years ago (at least 3 - 5 a year) than I've had in my entire 12 years in Toronto (2).

Trust me, on average we Tampons have way more outages than any other city besides Mexico City. The best one was during the no-name storm some ten years ago when it took almost four days to get power back on just my side of the street.
That's why I have my own generator for those long evenings without power after every other storm.

I gave up and went to bed after the 10th mini-outage yesterday.