St. Albert utility rates are in the same ballpark as other capital region municipalities.
A pair of information requests compared St. Albert’s revamped utility rates to Edmonton, as well as to Spruce Grove, Stony Plain, Strathcona County and Fort Saskatchewan.
St. Albert utility fees soared in 2015 after the introduction of a new utility rate model.
But the comparison shows the changes have put St. Albert’s rates into the same range as those other communities.
“It obviously shows that we’re kind of in line with the rest of the region in terms of our utility bills,” said city director of finance and utilities Diane McMordie. St. Albert’s rates were lower than those averages before, she said.
St. Albert’s average monthly customer bill was listed as $147.89, including charges for storm water. Edmonton’s was $149.79, Strathcona County’s was $133.69, Spruce Grove’s is $129.86, Stony Plain $126.47 and Fort Saskatchewan’s was $117.40.
Spruce Grove, Stony Plain and Fort Saskatchewan exclude storm water charges from their utility bills.
It’s hard to tell if the comparison is just apples to apples, McMordie said. For instance, St. Albert’s rates include fully funding a 10-year capital plan, but it’s not known if the other communities are doing something similar.
“That’s the thing that’s the challenge,” she said.
The other information request looks at just St. Albert and Edmonton’s rates, comparing different types of residential and non-residential bills.
There was a stark difference between medium and large commercial properties’ utility bills. In Edmonton, a medium property’s average bill was estimated to be $529.19, while St. Albert’s was $193.66. The difference between a large commercial property’s bill showed the same-sized property would pay $4,327.92 in Edmonton monthly versus $3,037.41 in St. Albert.
McMordie said the differences in those commercial rates are in how storm water fees are charged. Edmonton calculates the rate for each property based on property size and a runoff coefficient, whereas St. Albert charges a flat rate.
The way St. Albert calculates storm water fees is being reviewed, she said, and the results will be presented to council later this year.
Mayor Nolan Crouse was surprised and pleased to see the results of the comparison.
“We had such a big bump in 2015,” said Mayor Nolan Crouse.
“I thought based on the rhetoric that was being shared that we were going to be skyrocketing over top,” he said.
The rates as they are now are sustainable, he said, with the exception of federal grant money. Crouse has argued against counting any government grant money toward utility capital projects.
“I don’t like my utility bill either, but the one thing and I said it in my state of the city (address) and I can say it to anybody, is the one thing we were doing today that we were not doing is collecting enough money to do ongoing maintenance over the long haul,” Crouse said.
He wants to re-examine the capital plan with an eye to see if the estimates are accurate.
“I feel very, very comfortable of where we are now from a utility rate point of view,” Crouse said.
