Facing competition, along with a difficult economy and a fourth year with little growth insales, the Company continued its effort to increase efficiency while maintaining customer service.Central to our efforts in this area was our Effectiveness Process which draws upon the strengthsof all employees to increase customer value and enhance job security. Contributing to the successof this process was the strong partnership developed with Local 1620 of the IBEW. The fact thatour rates have been stable for the last four years is one indicator of our success in this area.
Newfoundland Power continues to be subjected to severe competition in the heating market buthas met the challenge with a major shift in its marketing effort. Last spring Newfoundland Powerlaunched an advertising campaign called "Don't Get Burnt" which was quite successful inencouraging consumers to question whether they were getting a true picture of the costs involvedin the conversion from one form of home heating to another. The training and reassignment of 19of our employees into energy consultant positions was an indication of our commitment tomaintaining our share of the home-heating, water-heating, and commercial-energy market byensuring that our customers were accurately informed of all costs and savings programs.
Newfoundland Power offers many energy efficient programs including rebates for such things ashome insulation and thermostats in addition to offering free advice on ways to improve the energyefficiency of homes and businesses. This year, we plan to support our consultants in the field byincreasing our marketing efforts and expanding a marketing campaign for both residential andcommercial customers, and as such we launched another advertising campaign in Novembercalled "Home Sweet Home".
In the environmental area, 1995 saw a major accomplishment with the removal of all PCBs instorage to a destruction facility in Alberta. This was part of the company's commitment to theARET (Accelerated Reduction/Elimination of Toxics) initiative. Also in 1995, NewfoundlandPower identified certain products containing substances on the ARET list and/or containingOzone depleting substances which will be replaced with safer products. Our company has beenvery committed to the environment in the past and we will continue to operate in anenvironmentally responsible manner in all our activities in the future.
Being one of the largest private corporations in Newfoundland carries with it a high level ofresponsibility to the community, especially in the area of health and safety. One of the moresignificant community projects we initiated this year was in conjunction with the Newfoundlandand Labrador Association of Fire Chiefs and Firefighters and focused on fire preventionawareness. The fat fryer program called "Now You're Cookin'" received recognition from theFire Commissioner's Office and the Department of National Defence. The program which wasdesigned to help eliminate fat fires caused by the misuse of cooking oils, ran during fire preventionweek in October and was extremely successful.
Newfoundland Power buys most of the energy it sells from the provincially-owned NewfoundlandHydro. The cost of power to the ultimate customer is the sum of all costs generated in bothorganizations. In 1996, we plan to work closely with Newfoundland Hydro to identify areas thatcan lead to cost-saving opportunities for both companies and ultimately for consumers. What ismore, we plan to explore similar cooperative initiatives with other utilities in the province, andalso with our sister company, Maritime Electric in Prince Edward Island.