New Brunswick Premier Shawn Graham has fired back at the premier of Newfoundland and Labrador over the proposed sale of NB Power.

Graham says Danny Williams should stop engaging in "cheap publicity stunts" to try to stop the $4.8-billion deal between NB Power and Hydro-Québec.

On Thursday, during a speech in Calgary to a business group, Williams said Hydro-Québec will use the New Brunswick grid to block his province from selling electricity into the U.S. He recently gave a similar speech in New York.

'Danny Williams is calling on us to provide an open market — something that is very clearly a part of the proposed agreement already — when he does not even practise what he preaches.'—N.B. Premier Shawn Graham

Graham described Williams's position as "ironic," saying Newfoundland doesn't treat New Brunswick fairly in bidding on offshore oil contracts.

"Danny Williams is calling on us to provide an open market — something that is very clearly a part of the proposed agreement already — when he does not even practise what he preaches," Graham said Friday during a news conference.

"In Newfoundland's offshore projects, New Brunswick companies line up — this is important to note, they line up — behind Newfoundland providers for scraps left by local preferences on construction projects and labour needs."

Williams has asked Graham for a written guarantee that Newfoundland will be able to build a transmission line through New Brunswick.

Graham said New Brunswick is open to that if Newfoundland follows the rules. But he also said Williams's demand for agreements before the NB Power sale closes amounts to a request for special treatment that the rules don't allow.

Under the proposed deal, expected to be completed in March, Hydro-Québec would pay $4.8 billion for most of NB Power's assets, a sum that would wipe out the utility's debt, Graham has said.

In addition, industrial power rates would be reduced by about 30 per cent, to the same level currently paid by Quebec companies, while residential customers would have their rates frozen for five years.

The New Brunswick government values the rate savings at $5 billion.