Sundre residents will on average receive of a rebate of about $7 on their gas bill for the month of November.
"Here's a good news story for our new council," said Vic Pirie, director of finance and administration, during council's Nov. 6 meeting.
"We received unexpectedly from Gas Alberta, a refund of just over $15,000," said Pirie.
One of the advantages of belonging to a co-op and running a municipally-owned gas utility is that the Town of Sundre can generally receive a lower price that is passed onto residents, he said.
Periodically, a rebate becomes available to users based on consumption, he said.
"We received about $45,000 back in 2009."
The municipality received a $15,000 rebate for 2016. Administration sought direction from council in allocating the funds. A one-time $0.61 per gigajoule credit to be applied on residents' utility bills for November -- based on actual gas consumption for the month -- was recommended.
Coun. Cheri Funke moved the motion.
"With 1,200 accounts, what would be the average home discount, approximately, for the month?" inquired Coun. Todd Dalke.
Based on past average rates of consumption in November, Pirie said this year's rebate would amount to a little more than $7.
"As a resident, I wouldn't want that back myself," said Dalke.
"Seven dollars is great but it doesn't buy Christmas."
But the accumulative $15,000 could instead be put towards improving any number of municipal programs or services, he said.
However, one of the difficulties with utilities is that revenues generated by a service should stay within the realm of that utility, said Pirie. For example, money generated by the municipality's water fees must remain allocated within that system, he said.
"We simply pass onto our consumers the cost of the gas. So our consumers have been overcharged, if you like, by that $15,000. So we can keep it in a reserve to be used for future gas projects, but it would be difficult to use in non-gas areas," he said.
Coun. Rob Wolfe agreed with Dalke's position and said the funds should be allocated to a gas-related reserve and made a motion to that effect.
However, mayor Terry Leslie said that as a point of order, council first had to vote on Funke's motion, which was carried with Wolfe and Dalke opposed.
