Lowering Albertans’ utility bills a priority
By Lethbridge Herald on September 14, 2024.
AT THE LEGISLATURE
Nathan Neudorf – UCP MLA for Lethbridge East
Lowering the cost of everyday essentials, like power, is a top priority for Alberta’s government. That’s why our government is modernizing the entire electricity system to provide long term solutions to lower utility bills and protect Alberta’s ratepayers. Thanks to these efforts, Alberta’s default power rate decreased by nearly 60 per cent over the past year from 32.3 cents per kilowatt hour down to 13.2 cents per kilowatt hour.
Alberta’s electricity system was designed a quarter century ago, when coal was the primary source of power. Over time, Alberta’s power system has evolved significantly, with the demand for electricity growing exponentially.
Since becoming the Minister of Affordability and Utilities, my main focus has been to lower the cost of utility bills. This requires long term solutions that address the root cause of rising costs, often necessitating the lengthy processes of legislative and regulatory changes. Our government has been working tirelessly to achieve this in the shortest timeline possible.
Over the past year, our government has already made significant progress towards an affordable and reliable electricity system. While work is underway for long term market reforms, we’ve implemented temporary measures to restrict economic withholding, resulting in year over year electricity prices for August decreasing by nearly 60 per cent. Our government has also taken action to lower and stabilize Local Access Fees and the default electricity rate, now the Rate of Last Resort, which will come into effect in the New Year.
This is all great news, however our work is not finished. Our government is listening to Albertans, and we’ve heard their concerns with the costs of transmission and distribution. We will soon be making changes to how these delivery fees are allocated, taking the pressure off everyday Albertans’ wallets and keeping more money in their pockets.
While Alberta’s government is working tirelessly to lower the cost of utility bills, the federal carbon tax continues to make it more expensive for Canadians to power and heat their homes. Our government is continuing to call on Ottawa to axe the tax and end the burden that it places on our hardworking families and small businesses.
Albertans who are having difficulty with paying their utility bills, communicating with their retailer, or making manageable payment arrangements should contact the Utilities Consumer Advocate (UCA). The UCA mediates negotiations for payment arrangements, utility reconnections, and provides referrals to other agencies that can offer further assistance. More information can be found at ucahelps.ca.
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Lowering utility bills? Incredible! A reminder of trying to let the horse out of the barn after the barn door is closed. Again, ahem, the cap on electricity rates that we did have which was removed by the gong-show UCP in 2019…
And the disastrous 1985 deregulation of electricity in Alberta? So-called freedom of choice? In the meantime, Albertans have been disastrously hosed by ever escalating electricity rates. And folks just kept on voting for this sort of thing? We sure didn’t.
Good points as always, SA. Not to mention discouraging renewable energy investment, the lowest cost electricity both now into the future.
more mouth and little action on fairness and decency. it has been under the watch of our cons govts that the people have been ripped off, egregiously, by giving away the brunt of our oil/gas wealth to the barons, by leaving us with the toxic fallout and the massive cost of dealing with that, and, by creating an oligopoly that nails us dearly for the basic necessity of utilities. what will this great govt of ours do to control the over the top costs? use taxpayer money to offset the sleaze – actually robbing from our coffers with some rebates, while the oligopoly continues to rake in big bucks using our resources to overcharge us. classic modern crony capitalism.
while placing caps on the rate we can be charged for gas and electric sounds just peachy, the truth of the matter is that we get robbed via the ridiculous fixed fees that the robber barons are permitted to bill out. last month we used 2 gigajoules of gas, at about $4/gj…and yet, the gas portion of the bill was a good bit over a $100. thus, we paid over $50/gj for gas.
it is high time alberta took over its utlitiies. they are a need, and, whatever profits they return would go into our coffers, helping to offset budget deficits and/or shoring up a money pool to pay for our common needs, such as health and education and infrastructure.
“While Alberta’s government is working tirelessly…”
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It isn’t so much the cost of the gas or electricity that is the problem, It is all the fees and riders that the utility companies are allowed to charge. On a 93.08 electricity bill, 26.77 is the cost of the electricity. 66.31 in fees, charges, and riders. I never hear about the govt doing anything to control those.