Fortis Proposes Rate Changes
Friday, July 13, 2012 @ 3:59 AM
Prince George, B.C.- If you haven’t read the insert that accompanied your latest bill from Fortis Gas B.C. , you may have missed the notice about that company’s application to change rates.
Fortis would like to amalgamate the three natural gas utilities in B.C. that it now owns, but which had different rate structures. Customer rates differed based on the region of the province in which the customer lives.
If approved, Fortis will have one rate for all it’s B.C. customers.
Right now, communities such as Whistler and Vancouver Island pay a higher rate than the folks in the Prince George region and those who live next to the gas wells in Fort Nelson.
Fortis had made an application to the BC Utilities Commission last year, but withdrew the pplication in November, then held some open houses across the province, including one in Prince George in February, and refilled an application in April.
Since then, the BC Utilities Commission has held a procedures conference to try and decide when and where the hearing on the application should be heard. At this point, it would appear the ducks are being aligned to have the hearings held this fall in Vancouver, but that has not yet been finalized.
At issue is what the new rate structure will mean to your gas bill. According to Fortis, the impact would be phased in and by 2017 the estimated increase would be about 5.4% for inland customers. 5.3% more for the Lower Mainland and an even 5.0% boost for customers in the Columbia region.
The winners in this proposal would be the folks in Whistler who could expect their bills to drop by 37.6% by 2014, and that same year would see Vancouver Island residents benefit from a 25.2% savings.
It’s the people in Fort Nelson, who would be hit the hardest. Fortis proposes easing that hike into that region over a longer period of time, so that by 2028, Fort Nelson residents would be paying about 54.9% more.
The B.C. Utilities Commission is still accepting comments on this application but you have to register with the Commission. You can register for full or simplified intervention, register as an Interested Party, attend the public hearing as an observer, or submit a Letter of Comment. You can register online at www.bcuc.com/Registration.aspx . The deadline for registration is August 23rd.
Comments
After all that I still do not know how much a person in Fort Nelson pays for a unit of gas right now compared to other communities and how much they would pay when the adjustments are all over, other than everyone would be paying the same.
The other question, of course, is what determines the cost of gas delivered to a house. The price of the energy unit, I am assuming, would be the same. However, I would think that the delivery through a pipeline would depend on the distance based on cost of pumping the gas through a well as the maintenance cost and the capital cost of the pipeline.
Is that a part of the proposed adjustment, or is it just the energy cost?
An interesting little tidbit in the Council package for Monday’s meeting.
Fortis is donating $25,000 towards the accessible playground that is being constructed in Duchess Park.
This is obviously not the only donations they are making in BC and in PG.
While a donation may be required because th City dos not have enough money from our taxes, it seems to me that either way, the property owners who heat their homes with natural gas – which I assume to be by far the majority – end up paying for this facility.
Seems like a shell game to me. Do we really need Fortis to have a photo op for this? Can we as natural gas users all get into the picture too?
This is just the first step.. the thin edge of the wedge… next it will be just one price for all their customers on the global market once the export terminals are built and then its a 500% increase. People in Fort Nelson will be paying a $1000 a month to heat their homes in the winter when all is said and done if Fortis gets their precedence set here.
Oh no here come a steady stream of private gas company’s knocking at your door!
“… next it will be just one price for all their customers on the global market once the export terminals are built and then its a 500% increase.”
This will eventually come to pass! The companies have NO obligation to sell gas cheaper to domestic customers when they can get triple or quadruple in the global market.
“The companies have NO obligation to sell gas cheaper to domestic customers”
Isn’t that the type realization that some countries have come to which caused them to nationalize monopolistic businesses or made laws to cause them to break up monopolies.
Yes. Curiously enough, some cars which are made only in Canada and exported to the US actually have a much lower retail price there than here! Often it amounts to thousands of dollars in difference – so we get stiffed no matter what! At least they should sell for the same price!
Three cheers for solid fuels :) :) :)
Great logic isn’t it? The people who need less gas to heat their homes (account warmer climate) pay less, while those who need more gas to heat their homes (colder climate) pay more!
It appears that most of us will pay more while the playground for the wealthy will pay less. (Whistler)
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