Doesn’t seem to matter what these clowns do now.
The provincial government is taking the stage.
April 16. Mark it on your calendar.
That’s when the provincial government led by Premier Danielle Smith is expected to make their move on how Calgary city hall calculates its local access fee on your electricity bill and its franchise fee on your natural gas bill.
They’re lowering the boom.
Electricity costs are coming down but recently the tab from the fees has been a real pain in the butt.
City hall knew for years if electricity prices skyrocketed their fees would go along for the ride up, up, up and more, more, more out of your pocket.
They knew they would gouge you.
They were up for gouging you.
Then, when the time came, they gouged you.
Then when you realized they gouged you the most unpopular city council in Calgary’s history acted surprised.
Then they dragged their feet.
The dough from their local access fee on your electricity bill and the franchise fee on your natural gas bill last year totalled $376.7 million, more than the $200 million more cash than they budgeted to take from you.
The heat was on. The provincial government was breathing down their neck. Calgarians were complaining.
City council had to do something.
Then, when they huddled before Christmas, they kicked the can down the road.
No surprise. This mayor and its city council majority couldn’t organize a booze-up at a brewery.
The can was kicked down the road to Monday and a so-called strategic meeting of city council where, having already picked the pockets of Calgarians, they would now mend their ways.
Meanwhile, the province is laying down the law in less than a month.
Calgary city council is like the kid who takes too long to clean up their bedroom and now their parents have to step in and make sure it’s done.
The provincial government poobahs tell us they realize Calgary’s fees are the highest in Alberta by a long shot.
They realize the city made a killing and they don’t want that to happen again.
The province is also said to be worried other places in Alberta would look at Calgary’s recent bonanza and figure this might be a swell way for them to shake down citizens for more dough.
The provincial types say they sat down with city hall and warned them.
Do something about these fees or we will.
On Monday, councillors wrestle over whether to get city hall deep thinkers to cook up a new way to determine local access fees.
Some on city council, the group nicknamed the Sensible Six by some and the Common Sense Six by others, suggested backing off until the province makes its play.
The city council majority disagreed.
They needed to make it look like they were the locomotive and not the caboose responding to this trainwreck.
“I personally see this as throwing a ball up in the air and waiting for the province to just smash us,” says Jasmine Mian, a councillor often on the same side as Mayor Jyoti Gondek.
But guess what.
If it’s up to city hall nothing will change until 2027, almost three full years from now.
Three years!
This is an old problem.
Back in 2010, the provincial government was going to do something about the fees but later wimped out.
Calgary was the culprit 14 years ago.
Calgary city hall fought back. No one would take their golden goose.
They claimed the province fixing the problem “erodes our autonomy and our ability to meet the needs of Calgarians.”
Rob Anderson, then a Wildrose member of the legislature and now Smith’s right-hand man, said what Calgary was doing in 2010 looked like “a ratepayer gouge” to him.
Fourteen years ago, Richard Truscott of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business told provincial politicians Calgary had the highest combined fees in Alberta even back in 2005.
Truscott said when the price of electricity or natural gas went up, Calgary city hall would get a windfall of new cash because of the way they set up their fees.
Read this quote from Truscott 14 years ago.
“As it stands now, Calgary is clearly, you know, an outlier.
“They are clearly calculating both electricity and natural gas fees in a way that’s completely different than other municipalities and generating a much higher amount of revenue as a result.”
Prices and fees are now going down.
We should get a rebate for all the loot they took.
Then again, we have a council led by Mayor Gondek where they slap on a big tax hike and still say they don’t have enough cash.
The big question. Will Calgarians finally summon up what little interest and energy it takes to go to the ballot box and not be treated as fools?
Again.
rbell@postmedia.com
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