Every month, attentive Sundre residents no doubt notice a municipal rider on their electricity bill.
Known as the Fortis franchise fee, the rate is determined annually by the municipality, which can choose to charge nothing to a maximum of 20 per cent.
"It shows up as municipal rider on their bill," Vic Pirie, director of finance and administration, told council during its Oct. 2 meeting.
Last year, council agreed to set the fee at eight per cent, of which five per cent was allocated to offset taxes while the remaining three per cent went to infrastructure reserves for future capital projects. During preliminary discussions for the 2018 budget process, council had also pre-approved increasing the fee by one per cent, he said.
However, Coun. Myron Thompson felt the fee should remain at the 2017 rate, and he urged council to consider the perspective of financially struggling families, some of whom have found themselves forced to make the difficult decision to relocate to another community with lower tax burdens. Click here for that story.
"I'm not in favour of saying, ëWe're going to take more money from you folks.' Even one per cent for a franchise fee, which I think is wrong-headed at this time," he said, referring to the sluggish economy.
But the increase had already been discussed and included in initial 2018 budget planning, meaning that retaining last year's rate would result in a shortfall, Pirie pointed out.
Additionally, residents can take measures to reduce the amount charged through the fee by being more conservative with their power consumption, said Coun. Cheri Funke.
"Yes, they pay it through their electricity bill. But it's usage based ó if they want to pay less, they use less," she said.
"I follow my children everywhere they go in my house and make them turn the lights off and use the electricity less because it is expensive."
Growing up, my father used to have an expression when he found lights had needlessly been left on, effectively wasting energy and money at the same time.
"This house is not Versailles!" he would remind us, referring to the lavishly opulent French palace.
Of course at the time my priorities were more in line with cartoons and comic books, and I did not quite grasp why turning the lights off was such a big deal. But now that I'm a homeowner, it could not possibly be more obvious.
Yet driving around town, I'm stunned to see some porch or driveway lights left running throughout the day. People are generally concerned about how they spend their money ó rightfully so ó yet there are those who apparently wilfully waste it.
Most of us likely won't notice more than a negligible increase on our monthly power bills, but those who are concerned about the hike can at least make a more concerted effort to lower their electricity consumption.
Not only will they save some money, but they'll also reduce their environmental footprint. It's win-win.
