Carbon charge increase added to Swift Current Light and Power bills

All Swift Current Light and Power customers are now paying slightly more on their monthly utility bill to cover the federal carbon charge portion on their electrical consumption.

Effective January 1, all Light and Power residential customers are now paying an average of 0.35 per cent more on their bill, which equates to a monthly hike of 23 cents for apartments, 45 cents for an average home, and 64 cents more for a large residence. Additionally, all small, medium and large commercial customers in the city can expect a 0.48 per cent average annual increase.

The increase comes just one bill after Swift Current utility customers received a 10 per cent

Back on December 1, the provincial government followed through on an election promise to deliver a one year 10 per cent reduction in power bill payments. The Saskatchewan Economic Recovery Rebate is in effect from Dec. 1, 2020 to the end of November 2021. Swift Current utility customers first received that 10 per cent reduction starting with their December 2020 utility billing cycle.

Saskpower is applying the carbon charges via an output-based pricing system on their electrical generation, so the electrical rate adjustment simply aligns the city utility rates with other Saskpower customers.

“They base it on an estimated kilowatt hours of generation. And so if they’re over or under, they’ll either over or under collect the carbon tax amount and therefore they just adjust it the following year. They’ll take the surplus or the shortfall and add it to the next increase that has to take place,” Chief Administrative Officer Tim Marcus said of the Saskpower increase.

The City does not charge a mark-up to this carbon charge, so the rate increase simply covers the carbon tax on the generation amount.

There is also not a retroactive payment or rebate on the Saskpower fee, as they simply adjust the rate in the following year if they over collect or under collect in the previous year.