Alberta introduces legislation to reduce high power bill fee surcharge for Calgarians Achi-News

The Alberta government is stepping in to prevent Calgary residents from being forced to pay large overages on their power bills.

Utilities Minister Nathan Neudorf has introduced a bill that, if passed, would ban cities from using variable rates to calculate local access fees on power bills starting in the new year.

Power companies are charged local access fees instead of property taxes, but Calgary’s fees rise and fall with the price of electricity while other municipalities have a fixed rate or some other formula.

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As a result, Calgary took in $186 million more than expected last year from the fees while residents had to pay an average of about $240 – three times the fee Edmonton residents pay.

Calgary city council has already agreed to change how it calculates the fees to make them more affordable, but that won’t happen until at least 2027.

Neudorf says Calgarians need relief sooner and says the legislation would also stop copier fees from other municipalities.