Panel data provided by Madison's Canadian Lumber Reporter.

Natural Gas Hike Benefit's City Hall

By Ben Meisner

Have you noticed that no one at City Hall has come out swinging at the prospect (forgone conclusion) that gas rates will increase in this city by 5.6 % starting  July 1st, 2005. 

Summer is a nice time to lay the increase on us, because come fall when we use more gas, we will have forgotten we've been hit again. 

Never mind that we are paying more because our cousins to the south are expected to use more natural gas because of an anticipated hot summer in the USA. 

Now you ask, why hasn’t City Hall raised a fuss?  Well the answer to that may be buried in the fact that when the gas goes up by 5.6 %,  low and behold so does the franchise fee. That’s the money the City collects from you and I and then says it’s all coming from Terasen Gas. 

You will also notice at the bottom of your bill another little gem, GST.  Now if you increase the price of gas in the average home by $72 dollars per year (Terasen’s figures) you will pay an additional $2.20 for franchise fees to go to the City of Prince George coffers, and on top of all that, GST at 7%, equals $5.19.  So the grand total is about $80.00 dollars per year for the average home. 

Terasen’s only talking about its share of the pie and of course City Hall isn’t going to say much because with about 32,000 customers,  an increase in gas rates means an increase in the franchise fee.  In this case, it will give City Hall another $ 70,000 dollars or so to play with. An extra few bucks of tax tacked onto the home owners in the city?  Of course it is. It is just another neat little way of the City getting more money out of your pocket without you really knowing. 

It’s a bit like pick pocketing. You know you’ve lost it,  you just don’t know where.
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