City notebook: It’s a deal… or is it?

By COLLIN GALLANT on December 3, 2022.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

Members of the utility buying public in Medicine Hat have some thinking to do.

Believe it or not, it’s a joy for some, that particular sort of self-styled wheeler dealer who wonders why they can’t seek out power and gas rates like their brother in law in Calgary.

For others, maybe the majority, it’s a headache.

It’s probably a little of both for the city, which will bring new utility contract options forward hoping to remove the danger of having most of its customers locked into a single price.

This year, a fixed-rate contract turned into a money loser for the City of Medicine Hat as markets went all kinds of wild. It was big win for customers who only complain that bills have still gone up.

Consider however that larger utilities, like Enmax, Epcor and Direct Energy, have upwards of 600,000 customers each and use that big base to spread out risk by signing up blocks at different rates. It’s a hedge against the worst-case scenario.

Banks and big investment houses do it, and horse tracks, too.

Handicappers adjust odds often to bring in about the same amount from losers as it will have to pay out to winners. They pocket a built-in difference that rolls in like clockwork.

Can Medicine Hat, with 25,000 customers, build and operate a system that protects both the business and its customers from price shocks?

If they did, would anyone believe it?

And in case you’re wondering about the big rate review promised by new Premier Danielle Smith, it will likely focus on provincial transmission fees which Medicine Hatters haven’t paid for decades.

It’s a gas

On the helium front, it’s been a while since the niche materials sector was discussed in the Hat, but things are afoot, if not afloat, in the region.

Global Helium announced Thursday it will build a processing facility at Rudyard, Mont., about 60 kms west of Havre.

Private company North American has three such plants near its Battle Creek and Mankato wells in southwest Saskatchewan, and Royal Helium has one under construction north of Brooks after it bought a competitor. Saskatoon-based Royal is far from shy when discussing its outlook.

So how does this work? Well, the element’s particular logistics require that production be hived off and concentrated close at plants near wellsites, then it is sent (via tubes on truck beds, you may have seen) for delivery and further refinement.

That larger gathering facility is a liquefaction plant, the potential of securing Western Canada’s first plant is the target left over for the City of Medicine Hat ever since it farmed out its own helium wells left over from the petroleum division’s “organic growth” strategy five years ago.

Medicine Hat still looks like the centre of the industry map, however it’s Saskatchewan that has helium-specific grant programs to bolster investment in that province.

It’s a record

The 50th birthday of the Alberta Hansard – the official transcription of debate, proceedings and activities in the Alberta legislature – was noted as the fall sitting opened this week. The estimate is its volumes contain 157.3 million words spoken in the Legislature since 1972.

A look ahead

Council convenes Monday night as budget deliberations continue.

The CP Holiday Train pulls into the Medicine Hat train yard on Wednesday afternoon at 3 p.m. for a show later that hour.

The fall seating of the Alberta Legislature is set to conclude Dec. 22, just after the longest night of the year and the official start of winter.

100 years ago

The United Farmers of Alberta, the surprise new provincial government, would hold its annual convention in Medicine Hat, the News reported this week in 1922.

Also in a political vein, nominations for annual city council elections began rolling in.

Flour produced by the Hedley Shaw Mill in Medicine Hat would no longer be known as the “Cream of the West” but rather be aligned with the company’s nationwide product “Maple Leaf Flour.”

Edmonton would face Queen’s University in the Dominion Rugby Football championship match.

Ottawa paid out $70 million to Victory Bond holders as some notes came due in 1922, though about $100-million worth was rolled over into new bonds.

A sheriff from California arrested half the roster players of a secretive baseball game played one year earlier apparently between gangs of roving master criminals.

One second baseman, James Redmond, was wanted for a Chicago murder and was alleged to have held up a Seattle bank en route to the exhibition match.

Collin Gallant covers city politics and a variety of topics for the News. Reach him at 403-528-5664 or via email at cgallant@medicinehatnews.com