Autumn brings worries of high energy bills
By Lethbridge Herald on September 24, 2022.
AT THE LEGISLATURE
Shannon Phillips – NDP MLA for Lethbridge West
Ever so slowly our mornings are getting crisper, leaves are gently showing their new colours, and we’re all getting back into the swing of new school years.
All of these things herald the arrival of fall and all of the reunions and rituals that come with celebrating harvest, the passing of summer and new challenges ahead. For many of us it’s an invigorating time to look ahead while celebrating the year that’s been so far.
Unfortunately, autumn comes with an undertone of stress for many families in our community this year.
As the weather cools and the days shorten, many of our neighbours will be thinking of the immense energy bills they will be facing as they heat and light their homes and put fuel in their tanks as they drive themselves to work and their kids to activities.
With record-high electricity prices forecast for the coming year, our home energy bills are set to explode once again, placing further strain on family budgets that have already been stretched to the limit this year.
It’s a theme I’ve heard time and time again as I’ve been talking to folks across the city these past few weeks: families and seniors just wanting to get ahead and not being able to, no matter how much harder they work or how much they scrimp and save to cut costs.
They want a government who sees what they’re going through and actively finds ways to lessen their stress and make life just a bit easier. Unfortunately, what they see is a government in thrall to palace intrigue: focused on itself and each other, all trying to outdo each other with bizarre and radical promises to a small and increasingly out of touch subset of the UCP membership.
All this internal squabbling and spectacle aside, families in southern Alberta continue to be pinched in very real, very immediate ways by the UCP Government’s policy choices.
As a provincial government, the UCP doesn’t have control over everything – they can’t control the price of bananas at the grocery store or how much our kids’ back-to-school outfits cost – but there are many, many things that they can do to help Albertans out during this challenging time. Unfortunately, at every turn they seem determined to complicate things if not make them worse.
Every month when we open our electricity bills we get a stern and stinging reminder of the poor choices made by the UCP. In a fit of shortsightedness the UCP cancelled the electricity rate cap that would have saved Albertans an incredible amount of money this past winter and even more next winter.
On top of this we’ve seen them pile onto the added costs by jacking up the cost of almost everything they have power over, from car insurance to tuition to fees to visit our parks and wild places. When it comes to the issue of inflation and costs, it’s clear which side the UCP government is on, and unfortunately it’s not the side of everyday working Albertans.
It’s these issues – the things that keep parents and seniors up at night and which the UCP have made every effort to ignore – that make me want to fight even harder in the Legislature for our city and region and to make sure that those same concerns I hear on the doorsteps are given voice. It’s why I’m excited to be part of a caucus that not only understands these concerns and helps to magnify the experiences of communities impacted by bad decisions, but is also committed to finding ways to help and putting those ideas into place if given the privilege of forming government.
I’m also encouraged by the spirit of Southern Albertans and the ways in which we band together to build each other up and embrace our incredible strength and diversity.
This month I was privileged to attend the South Region Self-Advocacy Network (SRSAN) Citizen Walk About in support of those in our community living with disabilities and using their voices to advocate on behalf of themselves. I was, as always, proud to stand with folks from various backgrounds and abilities and discuss the need to ensure everyone in our community feels like the full citizen that they are – and has access to the economic, civic, and social opportunities they deserve to live full lives.
Members of SRSAN are just another example of what makes our community great: friends and neighbours supporting each other, amplifying each other’s voices and working toward a fairer and more accessible world.
While I’m always thrilled to hear stories of resilience and community-building in our city, my office is also here to help if you need additional support. If you or anyone you know requires that assistance please reach out by calling 403-329-4644 or by emailing lethbridge.west@assembly.ab.ca.
18-17
Gee, higher energy bills in cooler temps. What a revelation! Who votes for this person, anyhow? The NDP will certainly make energy costs skyrocket if re elected.
Ms. Phillips is full of criticism of the UCP government, citing alleged poor decisions on energy, however, she fails to mention the six month $50.00 dollar / month subsidy, and the fact that it is not only governments that make decisions about energy services. The public has , for years, the opportunity to choose fixed rate options for both electricity and natural gas. For example, enmax, until a few months ago offered electricity at 5.9 cents per kW hour and natural gas for $4.19 per thousand cubic ft . , fixed for 5 years.
The public also has a duty to be well informed, and take actions accordingly.
While the NDP were in power they offered the public LED light bulbs, with the assumption that the public did not have the intelligence to screw in their own light bulbs.. Such is the mindset of the socialist politician.
Don’t forget the low flow shower heads, Guy who installed ours was from Ontario. Also another brilliant move was to shutter our coal generating plants, throwing hundreds our of work, and ending low cost energy. However, in an act of sheer brilliance, during their tenure, they, Phillips and her government, found it necessary to import coal generated electricity from Montana. You can’t make this up.
Actually, you just did.
Nice come back. Typical. Refute the facts or get lost.
Okay. Line 1: Guy who screwed on shower head from Ontario – maybe a ‘fact’ but one has to ask, ‘who cares?’. The decision to transition away from coal plants was by Stephen Harper. Coal is hardly a ‘low cost’ energy if one were to conduct full cost accounting. Finally, the amount of transboundary trade in electricity in Alberta is minuscule. Electricity from Montana is more likely to originate from wind power near Cutbank (though the electicity grid doesn’t really distinguish between sources).
So, I suggest you learn to distinguish between populist prattle and ‘facts’.
This just in:
Electicity consumption mix:
Alberta
36% coal
55% natural gas
10% other (wind, solar, hydro)
1.4% purchaser from BC, Sask & Montana
Montana
36% coal
54% hydro
10% other
So, you see, buck, the problem if making things up to create outrage. Wouldn’t we all be better off climbing out of the ideoligical marsh of ‘facts’ onto the solid land of values.
There were plenty of mistakes the NDP made while governing as all governments make, the installation of light bulbs was a big one I agree. Two of the reasons our utility bills are so high are distribution and transmission fees and ALL provincial governments over the last few decades share the blame for that. On my electrical bill those 2 are 2\3 to 3\4 of the bill. My gas bill last month was $62 and I used $4.73 of gas, the rest was fees and taxes. John Oliver did a segment on his show earlier this year how utility companies make money by building infrastructure whether it’s needed or not. ATCO was fined 31 million just this past June for overcharging ratepayers for work done in Jasper in 2018. No criminal charges just a fine. Guess it’s the cost of doing business, right?