Calgary mayor calls for changes to local access fees
Posted Aug 10, 2023 12:46 pm.
Calgary Mayor Jyoti Gondek says she wants to prioritize energy affordability as more people struggle to pay their rising utility bills.
In a statement posted to social media, Wednesday, Gondek takes aim at local access fees, saying with the current rate volatility, they may not be “the most appropriate.”
If we’re serious about affordability in Calgary, we also need to look at the price of power & related fees. With the Regulated Rate Option climbing, Local Access Fees are also higher because they’re tied to each other. Council needs to discuss whether this model still works. pic.twitter.com/0yuK1aJ4SS
— Jyoti Gondek (@JyotiGondek) August 10, 2023
UCalgary Associate Professor Blake Schaffer says that everyone with a utility bill is subject to the fee, even those on a fixed rate.
“You can think of it almost as a property tax, so in lieu of a property tax the city charges these fees, which the utilities flow right through to the consumer,” he explained. “Local access fee is tied to the prevailing market price of power. So, when prices are high, the fee goes up, when prices are low, the fee goes down.
“Pretty much everywhere else the fee is pretty constant. So with these high prices, we’ve had all sorts of issues of affordability, but this is just this one added component that really made me raise questions as to why does the city set fees in this manner?”
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In her letter, Gondek says that local access fees are creating situations of energy poverty as people already struggle with affordability.
Schaffer says he was happy to see the statement from the mayor.
“It’s great to see, if not long overdue, I feel like I’ve been sort of a voice of one on this subject,” he said.
Schaffer says alongside changing the local access fee the city can take other measures to change how much Calgarians pay to hook up to power.
“The City of Calgary would be collecting a decent dividend from the utility it owns, Enmax, because of high prices right now,” he explained. “That dividend, as well as the local access fees they’ve been collecting, are adding to the budget of the City of Calgary, they could be looking at financing affordability programs, targeted ones for those who can least afford it.”
In a statement released Thursday, the NDP commended the city for exploring ways to reduce local access fees, but placed the blame on the UCP, saying “the underlying problem is an explosion” resulting from the removal of the rate price cap.
