Gondek fires back at province after Calgary singled out for local access fees

Calgary’s mayor is sounding a bit perplexed about the Alberta government’s recent announcement on reducing local access fees.

The UCP government announced Monday that the fees, which are charged to power companies instead of property taxes, will no longer be allowed to be tied to variable electricity rates.

Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf specifically took aim at Calgary as the only municipality that operates that way, but Mayor Jyoti Gondek says they actually changed the rules a month ago, and even told the province.

“We made a decision on the 18th of March that said we’re doing quantity only,” she says. “We spelled that out very clearly. We actually contacted the government and said ‘we just did this.'”

The mayor said within that motion the city planned to use $10 million gained from the fees to help offset residents that needed to assistance paying bills.

Calgary took in $186 million more than expected last year from the fees.

The change from the city was not set to take effect until 2027, but Gondek says that was because it was the amount of time they expected it would take to get approval from the Alberta Utilities Commission.

“If the minister would like to cut that red tape, he certainly can,” says Gondek. “We don’t have the ability to do that.”

In a statement to CityNews, the province says the city needs to take responsibility for the issues Calgarians are facing around utilities.

“It is disingenuous and misleading for Mayor Gondek to blame the Alberta Utilities Commission for delaying any changes to Calgary’s local access fees,” Minister Neudorf said. “The AUC has confirmed to us that any future applications would take less then three months, not three years like the Mayor suggests. The Alberta Utilities Commission hasn’t received an application from the City of Calgary since 2017, which was fully processed in only two and a half months.

“The  City of Calgary needs to take responsibility for this issue. As it has not done so, the Province will.”

The proposed legislation from the province would also give the Alberta Utilities Commission stronger regulatory oversight on how fees are calculated and applied.

Last week, the province announced they were proposing to formally change the name of Alberta’s default rate to the Rate of Last Resort — instead of Regulated Rate Option.

Smith said the name change should clear up confusion surrounding the unstable and unpredictable option.