Ministry declines city’s request for utility relief
B.C.’s energy minister has shut down the City of Penticton’s bid to get in on a special relief program available to the other 95% of the province.
Mayor John Vassilaki, whose city operates one of five municipally owned power utilities in the province, in April wrote to Premier
John Horgan regarding a BC Hydro program that offers up to three months of free power to residential customers and their partners who lost a job as a result of COVID-19.
The same offer is available to owners of small businesses that have had to close their doors.
Vassilaki noted the city’s utility buys its power wholesale from FortisBC, so its customers were shut out from the relief program. But the mayor argued that because Fortis BC buys its power from BC Hydro, city residents will essentially be paying for the relief program anyway.
He called on the provincial government to instead provide a one-time grant to all B.C. utility companies to roll out the program province-wide.
In a reply dated May 8, Energy Minister Bruce Ralston pointed out New Westminster, which owns its own power utility, had implemented a BC Hydro-style relief program on its own, while two small gas companies had applied to the BC Utilities Commission to do the same.
Ralston went on to suggest, “The BCUC, which sets rates for BC Hydro, FortisBC and other utilities, will determine how any shortfall (resulting from the relief program) is best recovered.”
City council accepted Ralston’s letter for information only at Tuesday’s meeting.