Gov’t must fix condo power rebate: NDP

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on July 23, 2022.

Ry Clarke

LETHBRIDGE HERALD

Rachel Notley is standing by condo owners in Alberta, demanding the UCP take action and release condominium owners the money they are owed in electricity rebates. Following a statement by a spokesperson on behalf of Dale Nally, associate minister of Natural Gas and Electricity, it was outlinined that sub-metered units will not be eligible for rebates because only the main site receives the bill from regulated utility providers, making them ineligible to receive the rebate.

This excludes Albertans who own units in multi-residential buildings with single meters because the electricity is billed to the owners through condominium fees.

“This is a question of fundamental fairness. Every single Albertan is feeling the pressure of high-power bills and yet, the way that the UCP have designed this rebate program is going to exclude hundreds of thousands of people including many who need this help the most,” said Notley, who held a press conference Friday afternoon in Calgary.

Notley notes the cost of living is increasing and every single dollar counts. Noting Albertans are seeing a current price of $0.14 cents per kilowatt hour, approaching the all-time high back in February at $0.16 cents.

“This is more than double the price that we had put the cap on when we were in Government up to 2019,” said Notley.

With the removal of the cap the price has doubled and Albertans are without protection to curb these prices.

Now following the promise of a rebate, made by the UCP party back in February, the rebate plan now excludes many Albertans due to living situations.

“The UCP needs to fix this and fix it now. We cannot create a situation where some Albertans get help and others do not just because they chose to buy a condo and not a house,” said Notley.

Joining Notley at the conference was Phil Rosenzweig of Lethbridge, a board member of the Condo Owners Forum Society of Alberta, while noting the Rio Vista Condominiums consist of 124 units that are not eligible for the rebate because of this exemption. This is because many building that were built in the 1970s and 1980s have been converted to condos, yet are still using one meter. Many residents that could benefit from the rebate will now be excluded because of this oversight.

“While we applaud this program of giving back to hard working Albertans trying to keep their heads above water and making ends meet during these times of economical uncertainty and inflation. We also understand there’s a cost to these programs and therefore some method of qualifying recipients of this program maybe necessary. We feel that the economical benefits may have inadvertently missed out many of the people for whom the rebates were intend to help, due to the way the program was designed,” said Rosenzweig. “We believe the Government’s affordability program has created two classes of condo owners. Many of the condominiums built in the last 20 years have been built so home owners are individually billed for their utilities. However, many older apartment-style condominiums or apartment conversions have single meter structures for each of their utilities that they receive. Unless they went the expensive process of sub-metering.”

There are at least four other major buildings in Lethbridge that exist in these circumstances, along with the Rio Vista Condos.

Rosenzweig called on the UCP to compromise adding an additional step that would see all condominium owners be treated the same. Alberta’s Affordability Program website has a section on rebates, and if residences have not received theirs, they can submit a claim.

Rosenzweig suggests the UCP should allow single-meter condominiums to certify themselves as well so they can receive a rebate too.

Follow @APulidoHerald on Twitter