By Bill Schnarr
You open your power bill, sigh, and start doing some quick math in your head.
What else can be cut off your budget? Groceries? Something for your kids? Turn down the thermostat and pray the mild weather holds?
Take another look at your bill. Look at all those fees and riders.
The one called a “Local Access Fee”, or “Municipal Franchise Fee”? Surprise! That’s the Town of High Level reaching through your utility bill and directly into your pocket.
A franchise fee is what a utility pays the Town for the right to be the local distributor and to run power lines or gas pipes on public land. Council sets the rate, and then the utility passes the cost on to you through your bill, and the money goes to the Town.
And when that bill is so high you need to start looking for things to trim from your budget, whose name is at the top that you can point all your anger towards?
ATCO’s.
True Story. My last ATCO bill was $428.79. Of that, $48.65 went to the Town of High Level: $19 on the electricity side and $29.65 on the gas side. For ONE MONTH.
It’s a convenient arrangement for the Town. Sure, the fee is disclosed. You can see it right there on your electric bill and on your gas bill. What that line on your bill doesn’t tell you is that Council has the power to reduce it.
In fact, they could cut it entirely.
Free us from the fees
On Nov. 9, Council is being asked to approve a five-year extension of the electricity distribution agreement and keep the electricity franchise fee at 12.1% of eligible delivery charges for 2027. As part of that agreement, they have the ability to adjust the franchise fee annually.
The Town expects to collect roughly $1.1 million through electricity franchise fees in 2027. That money comes from your households and your businesses while you are trying to keep your own budgets afloat.
When we are already stretching our paycheques to heat our homes and keep the lights on, how can Council, in good conscience, keep collecting those fees without asking what it would take to suspend them for a year?
If Council wants to help the community with affordability, it can start with a charge it controls.
Suspend the electricity and gas municipal franchise fees for one year.
Give people some breathing room.
November High Level By-Election details:
Voting takes place in Council Chambers at Town Hall (10511 103 Street).
Advance Voting will take place on Nov. 14 between 12:00 p.m. and 8:00 p.m.
Election Day Voting will take place on Nov. 16 between 10:00 a.m. and 8:00 p.m.
(Vote for Bill!)
