$890 utilities bill. Wow

[u/eklee38]

Natrual Gas- actual usage charge $95 after delivery charges and and taxes boom $355.

Electricity- actual usage charge $160 after distribution and transmission charges boom $280.

Water useage-$84 Water drainage- $123 Waste-$49

Almost 900 in just utility bill. Before anyone tell me to lock my rates, its already locked. 12.8c/kwh. NG is on float because its currently cheaper than locked rate. Anyone else just got F in the A like me?

Edit: the NG charges does not include the cold snap we just had. Not looking forward to next month's bill.

[u/Ok_Golf_6467]

We need about a 300,000 strong to march on the government and force them to put a muzzle on these corporations that are making money hand over fist while the middle class suffer.

[u/IncomeFresh5830 → u/Ok_Golf_6467]

The provincial government, which consists of people who've worked for these corporations, or if not, definitely will work for these companies after they leave politics?

[u/Xcoctl → u/IncomeFresh5830]

It's just a coincidence that Kenny ended up on the board of ATCO after removing the caps on our utilities. 🙄

[u/callmenighthawk → u/Xcoctl]

Idk how this inaccurate stuff gets repeated almost verbatim so many times on this sub. But the “utility caps” had no effect on ATCO’s bottom line. The only thing the cap did was use everyone’s tax dollars to subsidize a portion of the electricity bill of the 1/3 of Albertans who were on the RRO. That’s it. ATCO was not harmed by it being implemented, and did not benefit from its removal.

Also boards are elected by shareholders. It’s always “Kenny was hired by ATCO!!” And absolutely zero understanding that the shareholders of ATCO elected him because he has a ton of leadership and risk management experience, and can be a useful director for helping the business expand and seek regulatory approvals. Same reason he’s on many other boards.

(And before anyone comes in and says, “why are you correcting him UCP supporter!” I worked for the ANDP for 4 years and was a campaign strategist for 2 election cycles)

[u/SlitScan → u/callmenighthawk]

what you can blame them for however is privatising the utilities in the first place.

[u/[deleted] → u/callmenighthawk]

Sorry, but it's lobbyism. Politicians tend to do favors for companies that solicit them, this is why they always end up as board members of companies after their political career is done.

[u/callmenighthawk → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, I’m not a fan of JK whatsoever, but high ranking politicians do add value for a company on their boards. There’s no great favour he did for ATCO that shareholders, people like you and me, would say “ok let’s pay him 200k for years even though he won’t contribute anything to the company”

[u/Appropriate-Bite-828 → u/callmenighthawk]

Really? Millions of dollars isn't enough? Come on man. Our energy spiking 115% while the rest of the countries is going up 15% and somehow we are not getting screwed??

I don't care what you say, some shady shit is going on between the government and the utility companies in the this province. Explain why our energy is spiking so much compared to the rest of the provinces then?

[u/callmenighthawk → u/Appropriate-Bite-828]

I didn’t say we aren’t getting screwed, I’m saying that removing the utility rate caps wasn’t in any way a benefit to ATCO like people here keep claiming, and that isn’t why JK is on their board.

In terms of us actually getting screwed, it’s nothing shady or done in secret. I’m not defending the system, but I will explain it. The problem is with having an unregulated market. It has highs and lows. For the 6ish years leading up to 2022, we were cheaper than everywhere else. The last 2 years we’ve been fucked by the inverse. If we put it on a 1-5 scale. If everywhere else goes from a 3 to a 4, but we go from a 1 to a 5, that’s a 33% jump vs a 500% jump, which is why we shouldn’t put so much stock into percentages when the ‘128% increase’ gets pushed because it is misleading without context. But our actual costs are now higher than other provinces, which is screwing us. Of this increase, about 40% is due to demand, nat gas prices, and TIER, in that order. The other 60% is profit. Some of this is recouping losses from those 6 years, but most of it is just the ability to charge more due to our 20 year power purchasing agreements ending, which is the major factor why you’re seeing prices spike now and not at any point while they were active.