All for one and one rate for all

The much-anticipated Electricity Review has been completed.

For those keeping count, this is report number four in the last ten years.

When the review panel was in Inuvik, I tried to argue the case for one blended rate power for the whole territory.

Most of what I said didn’t make it in the report; I guess I was speaking to fast for the typist.

To recap, like it or not, we are all members in this club together, but we're not all enjoying membership privileges.

We all own the hydro facilities, but only those on the grid enjoy the benefit of lower energy costs. We all paid a low water rate rider, when the Snare hydro system was slowed to a trickle. We all pay for a bloated corporate office that the government refused to downsize when the territory split.

When Inuvik upgraded to a natural gas turbine system, only Inuvik rate payers paid the rider for the upgrade.

I explained to the panel that as the cost of service and the cost of fuel continue to rise, it is inevitable that the NTPC’s largest customer – Inuvik -- will be forced to seek an alternative.

There is this corporate mentality within NTPC that breeds waste and inefficiency, because the flaw in any crown-owned utility, is that they can always write off any expense as “the cost of service.”

This means they can take a charter when they don’t feel like driving the ice road, they can give six figure bonuses to management, they can avoid renewable energy sources, because it’s not in their interest. The more they spend, the more they make. Every dollar spent, is a dollar earned through the “cost of service.”

During an Association of Communities AGM, I brought up the subject with municipal leaders from Hay River, Fort Simpson and Norman Wells. It’s become obvious that we’re not all in this together, so why should we continue to share the cost of service with those who won’t share with us?

The communities along the Mackenzie Valley all share the same frustrations and, over a few cocktails, we dreamt of the Mackenzie Valley Energy Corporation.

All along the pipeline route, we could tap into the line, distribute the gas, generate our own electricity through co-generation and distribute our own electricity and recover heat to distribute to municipal buildings.

So what happens to what’s left of the NTPC? The once-blessed hydro customers will be left to shoulder the burden of that bloated corporate office, as well as subsidize every other community not on the grid or the pipeline route. In short, NTPC will fold like a house of cards.

I notice in the report that Ecology North was against any attempt to introduce one rate in the NWT, as they believe that the current higher rates in thermal communities encourage conservation.

With that line of thinking, why not make the Yellowknife, Hay River and Fort Smith rate the same as it is in Collville Lake? At $2.45/kwh, just think of all you’d conserve!

Take a look at the Ecology North web page and you’ll have a pretty good idea at how “North” they really are. Here’s one of the three questions they asked the board members to answer in their biographies:

“What is your favourite thing about YK, in 3 WORDS OR LESS?” (Emphasis theirs. I can only surmise that the caps lock key got stuck in between bong hits and no one noticed.)

Jenny Moores’ reply spoke volumes:

“small, sunny city”

Hate to burst your bubble Jenny, but winter’s coming and the sun is going.

And, with the Mackenzie Valley Energy Corporation, so goes your cheap energy on the backs of the rest of us.