The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Creighton Town Council has serious misgivings about an 8.7 per cent hike in electrical rates that took effect yesterday across Saskatchewan. Council has voted to send a letter to SaskPower Minister Frank Quennell over what they see as too vast of a boost that came far too suddenly. "It's a huge increase," said Town Administrator Paula Muench. "Our bigger facilities like the Sportex rink use a lot of power, and when you have your expenses increase, you have to try and increase your revenue to try and offset that, so it's very difficult." Council has added concern over the fact that they did not know of the increase until they saw a SaskPower ad in The Northern Visions Gazette just days before the new rate was implemented. Indeed the sudden surge came as a surprise to many Saskatchewanites, as the province approved the hike even though its rate review panel had yet to study the matter. SaskPower, a Crown corporation, says the change will amount to an extra $6 a month, or $72 a year, for the average residential customer. But a calculation of a Creighton resident's power bill shows the difference can be much larger. The resident uses electricity to heat his home and makes equal payments of $250 a month. That means his bill will go up $21.75 a month ? an extra $261 annually. Muench said the increase has a larger impact on northern Saskatchewan compared to the southern part of the province, where the alternative heat source of natural gas is available. Even before yesterday's increase, electricity rates in Creighton and Denare Beach were substantially higher than those in Flin Flon. A Creighton resident's power bill from Feb. 2003 totaled $358. Had he lived just a short distance away in Flin Flon, he would have paid $142 less, according to a calculation given to The Reminder. That might seem unreasonable to residents on the Saskatchewan side considering that Creighton, Denare Beach and Flin Flon obtain their power from the same source ? Manitoba Hydro. SaskPower purchases electricity from its Manitoba counterpart to service those two communities. See 'Lobbied' P.# Con't from P.# The rates have long been an issue for Creighton Town Council, which has lobbied for lower rates and even met with Minister Quennell last year to discuss the matter. 'Problems' Saskatchewan Crown Management Board Minister Pat Atkinson told The StarPhoenix that the 8.7 per cent increase is necessary given SaskPower's current financial situation. Due to a lack of hydro generation, he said, the company has had to buy natural gas, which is more expensive. "That's had an impact on their bottom line and they need to look at a rate increase in order to meet the objectives of the corporation," Atkinson told the newspaper. But Crowns critic Wayne Elhard blames the hike on the $169 million dividend SaskPower gave to Crown Investments Corp., the holding company for 11 subsidiary commercial Crown corporations, last year. "If they [the governing NDP] weren't overspending their income like drunken sailors they wouldn't have to come to the Crowns to squeeze every last nickel out of them," he was quoted as saying in The StarPhoenix.
