Province announces changes to lower utility bills in Calgary, but no relief for Edmonton customers
The Alberta government is changing existing legislation to lower utility bills in Calgary.
Electricity customers are currently charged a local access fee, which is used to compensate a municipality for the use of its property to provide electricity services.
About 200 municipalities currently charge such a fee to electricity providers, but how the municipality calculates the fee varies across the province.
The fees, which may not exceed 20 per cent of the distribution charge for electricity and 35 per cent of the distribution charge for natural gas, must be approved by the Alberta Utilities Commission (AUC) and are regulated by the Municipal Government Act.
Edmonton and Calgary both have agreements with municipally owned subsidiaries, which exempts them from needing AUC approval.
Edmonton follows a consumption-based calculation for its fees, while Calgary bases theirs partially on market rates.
As a result, Calgary customers can see fees vary wildly, depending on the price of electricity or gas.
The government says Calgarians paid an average of $240 in local access fees in 2023 compared to the $75 paid by Edmontonians during the same period.
The province plans to amend the Municipal Government Act to ensure the AUC will have oversight of all local access fees, and prevent municipalities from charging fees based on variable costs of electricity or gas.
The changes will take effect immediately.
Based on the numbers provided by the government, the average Calgarian could save $13.75 per month.
"Thanks to Calgary's formula, relying on the variable default electricity rate. This led to the City of Calgary collecting $303 million in revenue from local access fees, which is a surplus of $186 million more in these fees being collected by the city than they budgeted," said Nathan Neudorf, minister of affordability and utilities.
Staff behind the website EnergyRates.ca say Calgary's local access fee is charged at 11.11 per cent of the Regulated Rate Option (RRO) plus 11.11 per cent of transmission and distribution costs.
In the summer of 2023, there was a record-high price surge in the RRO, with rates reaching 31.858¢/kWh in August, before dropping to 26.455¢/kWh in September.
"If the price of electricity was 10 cents one month and your local access fees were $10. If the price of electricity went to 20 cents, your local access fees would be $20.
"This produced a compounding effect when your electricity bill was going up significantly because the spot price of electricity was going up, you also had significantly increased local access fees. So people in Calgary were seeing double sticker shock," said Joel MacDonald of EnergyRates.ca.
The province also announced on Friday it would change the name of the Regulated Rate Option (RRO) for electricity customers to the Rate of Last Resort.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'I just can't believe that it took so long': Body found in wreckage 3 months after deadly fire
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
No proof man lied to brother about number of kittens born in litter, B.C. tribunal rules
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Work stoppage possible as WestJet issues lockout notice to maintenance engineers' union
A lockout notice issued by WestJet to a union representing aircraft maintenance engineers could result in a work stoppage next week.
Quebec police hand out hundreds of tickets to Hells Angels and other bikers before 'first run' meeting
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Auston Matthews skates ahead of Game 7, status unclear with season on the line
Auston Matthews was back on the ice with his teammates Saturday.
Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
Snakes almost on a plane: U.S. TSA discovers a bag with small snakes in passenger's pants
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Feds hope to table foreign interference legislation next week: LeBlanc
Democratic Institutions Minister Dominic LeBlanc says he plans to table legislation this week to help the federal government address foreign interference, but he wouldn't say whether the proposal will include a foreign agent registry.