You may be aware that BCUC has ordered completion of this report before the initial due date of next spring/summer. I believe the decision of the BCUC to order Fortis to complete this report earlier than planned is a direct effect of media coverage on this very contentious issue. AW
TO: FORTISBC
Re: Conservation Rate two-tiered billing
I write to you with an urgent request that you reconsider the two-tiered rate system you implemented in summer of 2012.
As an Electoral Area Director for the Regional District of the Okanagan-Similkameen, I represent about 2200 residents in approximately 3600 square kilometers of the Similkameen Valley in southern interior British Columbia.
Many of the residents in this area are elderly, on pensions or fixed incomes, and their homes are often either historic or modular, neither of which are particularly energy efficient.
One of the residents who turned to me for help is Mr. McCullogh, a war vet who has lived in a single wide mobile home with a well-kept property on the Similkameen river for at least 15 years. His daughter-in-law visits to check up on him, but Jim is an independent fellow who is more than 90 years old. Since the introduction of the two-tiered conservation rate, this elderly man who risked his life to fight for our country’s freedom now pays more than $1,200 each billing cycle in the winter to satisfy his energy use.
Right next door, neighbours Barry and Bruce built their dream home a few years ago, taking great care to insulate well, install a heat pump and double glazed windows, and yet, with all of their efforts at energy efficiency, they too pay an average of $1,200 for each billing cycle.
Other provinces have dealt both with the issue of conservation rates and the recognition that It is unfair to apply a “conservation rate” to those residents who can only access electricity for heat. In our cold Canadian winters, this means many people will have to choose between heat and food, or paying their energy bills or their mortgage. Please see the snapshot below excerpted from a letter by Naramata resident Janice Joahnson which outlines the costs for energy in other provinces using a two-tiered system.
Many people will now choose to burn wood again, making the “clean energy” component of this initiative a farce.
“I predict that the devastating effects of this conservation rate will be an increased personal harm coming to those residents made desperate by the onerous charges Fortis has been regulated to apply by the BC Utilities Commission.
My greatest fear is that the residents unable to afford these electrical bills in a mild winter like we just had will come up with their own innovations, like bringing propane stoves indoors and doing whatever they can to stay warm for next winter. We’ll see a rise in house fires ripping through trailer parks and find charred bodies huddled around makeshift stoves when we look for the cause of the conflagration.
I urge you to consider either an increase to the tier to which the conservation rate is applied from 1600kw to 2500kw, or a billing relief registry for customers who do not have any choice but to heat with only electricity.
I look forward to discussing these options with you.
Angelique Wood
Electoral Area ‘G’ (Keremeos Rural/Hedley)