The town settled on a new electricity rate and confirmed the new gas contract at its regularly scheduled council meeting Sept. 24.
Council agreed to hike the town's electricity franchise fee one per cent in 2013, leading to a $62.75 increase to the user and adding $82,000 to the budget next year.
“Last year we did not increase the franchise fees,” said Heather Whymark, noting the Fortis increase was in 2010 when the fee was set at seven per cent.
This time around, Fortis is already jacking rates up and the average electricity user would see their bill go from $49.12 to $53.87 a month. That means the town would get more revenue this year since it receives seven per cent of collected funds.
“We get $27,000 for doing nothing,” said Coun. Mark Kemball, who opposed the administration's recommended increase.
The average utility user would pay $54.35 a month with the one per cent franchise fee hike.
Mayor Jim Romane also opposed the motion.
“I'm concerned about increasing utilities,” he said. “Each time it's a little more, a little more.”
The $82,000 increase is not specifically earmarked for any particular project but it does generally correspond to the cost of running streetlights.
“It's nice to break even on your utilities,” said Coun. Brian Spiller. “You're gonna pay one way or the other.”
Council also agreed to terms of a gas contract, which will result in a $30 increase for the average user.
In August the town set the ATCO Gas franchise fee at 23 per cent to be applied to the delivery portion of their utility bill.
“This was a more consistent method of calculation,” said CAO Helen Dietz, noting consumer bills will go up because the current system is tied to lagging natural gas prices. “It increased it slightly but only because of the position it's sitting in this year.”
The motion to allow the mayor and CAO to sign the contract was approved unanimously following third reading.
