Chestermere residents could be looking at 2017 rate hike

It’s not going to be welcome news for many looking to deal with the tough economic times in the city of Chestermere.

Chestermere Utilities Incorporated (CUI) has proposed to the city a 15 per cent increase per month to respond to some ‘serious operational deficiencies’.

It’s the first step of the new regulatory framework that CUI must adhere to under the city’s new rules.

They were established after CUI had proposed a $30 fee per month be levied on top of a resident’s normal bill this time last year.

At the time, CUI had said residents in the community had been undercharged for three years and this was put in place to deal with the budgetary shortfall.

The increase never went through and the city undertook a rigorous 3rd party, setting in place new rules after outraged citizens had petitioned officials to eliminate CUI altogether.

CEO Leigh-Anne Palter says they don’t make this new request lightly and they’ve done their best to cut costs and find efficiencies.

“The reasons that CUI had brought forward last year in requesting its rate increases which you may recall were not approved as requested, those situations haven’t changed.” she said. “It hasn’t been in the past to set rates using what is called a full-cost utility approach, its a very specific approach and that wasn’t the approach in the past. We’ve gone through the process with the city and they’ve set out a set of mandate and a regulatory process for us.”

Palter says they’ve crunched the numbers, it’ll depend on the utilities consumed.

According to the CUI CEO for those average customers who use 18 cubic metres, it’ll mean a likely increase of $20 a month.

“I think what they (residents) struggle with, what they should be assured by is there has been a lot of activity in the past year and the city, to my view, has accepted a lot of guidance from some strategic advisors. They did bring in a 3rd party to help them move through the process of creating the framework and the mandate, Municipal Affairs has been involved, my organization has 5 new board members and 3 of them have very, very deep utility, industry experience so to the extent that all of this may have come as a surprise to them last year and a very unwelcome surprise I understand that, you know I understand that this news isn’t anymore welcome but we’ve really benefited from a wealth of experience that have helped to inform us.”

Palter says they’ve tried to be transparent in the materials they have provided and they’re encouraging anyone with questions to email them at 2017rates@cuinc.ca, each will get a response until noon on December 15th, 2016.

The responses will be posted on their website and form part of a supplemental information package on December 19th, 2017 when council will make its decision.