cgallant@medicinehatnews.com@CollinGallant
A ratepayer protest meeting set for next week has outgrown its venue.
An open meeting to discuss the impact of high power bills on the restaurant sector was expanded this week to the general public.
After a flurry of calls to join in from the general public, organizer Sou Boss says it will now be held at the grandstand room at the Medicine Hat Stampede grounds on Tuesday at 2:30 p.m.
The owner of the Thai Orchid Room restaurant says she was shocked when she received her bill this month that included a new rate after her previous electric contract with the city expired June 30.
Discussing the change with friends and neighbouring business, she decided to take her issues public.
“What can we do to get people together and get some action?” she said. “People are coming forward and telling me what they’re paying, this isn’t right.
“We need to find solutions and for council to see we’re not going to sit by and not do anything about it.”
Some new action may come from council after a condo owners organization addressed it this week also asking for immediate relief from escalating bills and to revisit fees and rate-setting processes in the name of publicly owned utilities.
Council last discussed the issue July 4, settling on an expansion of payments to those who meet qualifications as low-income earners.
A move by Coun. Darren Hirsch to begin work on a special dividend to rate payers as a relief measure stalled at the meeting. At the time councillors voted to revisit the topic closer to financial year-end, but this week administrators told council the file is very active and a “priority of council.”
Boss told the News that residents and businesses are struggling now.
“They have to give everyone a little help right now and down the road look at a longer term solution,” she said.
The owner says her business’s utility bill rose by $1,000 from June to July, which lines up with an increase in rates after a six-month special offer to extend the 2022 rate.
For many, the power rate rose from 8-cents per kilowatt hour to nearly 17-cents in the case of new contracts, or 30.5-cents for customers who remained on default rate. Boss fell into the latter category, but feels Hatters should get the best rate from the city without having to navigate contract options.
Earlier this week, Ron Noel, president of the Medicine Hat Condo Owners Association, told council that one building in his group saw a similar doubling of commodity charge, equating to an $8,000 increase from June to July, though that is spread among all residents of the building.
Last May, the News reported extensively on projections in city financial statements that the profits at the city-owned power plant could exceed $134 million thanks to extremely high prices on the Alberta grid. The city sells excess power to the Alberta system and each year most excess profits come from exports.
While the massive profit isn’t weighted to scale inside the city’s franchise area, including Redcliff and portions of Cypress County, ratepayers are increasingly wondering why default prices are set in relation to rates around the province.
Prices across Alberta are up 128 per cent over last July, compared to 12 per cent in other provinces, and were a main driver of national inflation, according to Statistics Canada.
Last fall, finance officials with the utility department said 12-month pricing was required to add stability to the plant’s economics. In 2022, gas costs to operate the power plant spiked due to global conflict, and administrators said they needed better ability to recover those unexpected costs.
Natural gas prices have since stabilized however, while Alberta grid prices have risen to record highs. In an overview of the power generation model present at the July 4 meeting, administrators said their 10-year-old mandate from council is to operate similar to a private sector entity to ensure the overall health of the business and produce a dividend to the municipality. The same document states the use of dividends is strictly the purview of council.
The city’s next set of four-month financial statements, including an updated profit forecast, is due in October.
