City Notebook: Power profit confusion long a city tradition

By COLLIN GALLANT on June 24, 2023.

cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant

City council wants to see options to flow at least some of the huge profits the power plant is making off the Alberta grid on to local utility bills.

They also want some better strategy to promote the benefit of municipally owned power to customers.

But, and this is a huge but, it’s a multi-dimensional problem that the city hasn’t had much success solving, or explaining, in the past.

Much like brouhahas for the past, there’s a lot to unpack for ratepayers, but these controversies typically pass when lower prices arrive.

Case in point, the rate setting systems were largely unchanged for a decade, despite grumbling, until last December.

But now, the disconnect between power profits (a clear $134 million is forecast this year) and power prices (widely thought to be at record highs for some customers) is becoming acute.

Coun. Andy McGrogan tells the News after coverage on Monday night’s council debate appeared in print, that the complex problem needs attention.

Councillors are hearing an earful.

On rate setting, “It’s not like we shot the bullet out of a gun and can’t go get it” when business forecasts change, says McGrogan, adding the city needs to draw a direct line for customers from publicly owned power to their own pocketbook.

“We should be able to show shareholders some tangible benefits,” he said, as well as ease anxiety over having to renew rates.

He’s not the only one on council to think so. Several stated as much, before discussion strayed toward the theoretical, and no clear position was to be found.

Sounds a lot like last winter when staff asked council for the parameters of a rate review and, without an answer, the whole thing has gone nowhere.

As it stands, administrators are drawing up options for “one-time” rate relief. We’ll have to wait to see if it goes any further than that.

A flood of memories

Ask 10,000 Hatters forced from their home 10 years ago and you’ll get 10,000 stories.

Who could ever forget the bright white headphones of CJCY cub reporter Steve Krysak? They appeared in the background of photos and film of press conferences, and became a running joke for several years at press events.

And who else recalls the “under the bus” controversy in which Mayor Norm Boucher accused council members of sitting on their duffs during the emergency?

Fewer and fewer people remember Boucher at all, come to think of it.

But the response at the time was heated.

Ald. Les Pearson produced a photo of himself on an actual bus delivering evacuation notices. Ald. Phil Turnbull, who challenged Boucher for mayor months later, didn’t want it made public at the time, but told a story about delivering most of the rope and life jackets from the Canadian Tire he managed in the middle of one night to a temporary fire station in Riverside.

A look ahead

The feral cat issue arrives back at committee Monday before a special sitting of council that evening, potentially to deal with trying to move the city’s rec facilities study forward. Also, downtown bathrooms are back on the agenda.

Believe it or not, the last day of school is approaching, and then Canada Day is next Saturday… not before taxes are due Friday, June 30, however.

100 years ago

Fixing a minimum price for wheat in Canada would result in calamity if the price was not made even the world over, and extended to all benchmark commodities, according to an editorial in the News on June 23, 1923.

That impossibility should be enough reason to dismiss the entire idea, it argued.

Undeterred, the premiers of Alberta and Saskatchewan continued meetings to create a larger market wheat board, but time was running out for the current season.

A special buffalo barbecue would headline the Calgary Exhibition & Stampede, which hoped to prosper from the opening of auto routes to Banff and Golden, B.C.

As was practice, the News published entire lists of students who would progress to the following grade it the fall.

The city band would hold its first Sunday concert of the season at Riverside Park with a program featuring contemporary waltz, fox trot, an overture and march. Patrons were “encouraged to give liberally to the collection at the gates in order that the concerts can be continued.”

Dominion Day would also mark the opening of the lawn bowling schedule, in which 25 teams had secured a spot. Teams were also expanded to eight players from six to accommodate interest.

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.