Nick Marty has been speaking out for two years about the impact of two-tier electricity rates on rural customers without access to natural gas. (Richard McGuire photo)
An Anarchist Mountain man says he’s “annoyed” and “frustrated” with the way the British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) is handling a “public comment” process reviewing two-tier electricity rates.
Nick Marty has been arguing for two years that the two-tier rates charged by FortisBC and BC Hydro discriminate against rural residential customers who don’t have access to natural gas to heat their homes.
The BCUC is responsible for regulating the electricity monopolies.
The BCUC, however, responded on Monday that it is willing to listen to comments from all affected B.C. residents and it has posted information about the comment process in communities most affected.
The regulatory body also suggests in might be flexible with the comment deadline.
Marty, a retired federal expert on energy conservation regulation, also maintains that the two-tier system fails in its goal of promoting energy conservation and is actually counterproductive.
After intense lobbying through MLA Linda Larson and Energy Minister Bill Bennett, including gathering more than 600 names through an online petition, the provincial government agreed to look into the matter.
In July 2015, Bennett asked the BCUC to answer five fundamental questions based on Marty’s concerns about the impact of two-tier rates on those without access to natural gas, who rely on electricity to heat their homes.
Marty argues that those using natural gas for heating can keep all or most of their electricity consumption in the lowest price tier, so the rates provide no incentive to conserve.
Those without access to natural gas have no choice but to buy a large portion of their electricity for heating at a higher price, or switch to pollution-causing wood burning.
It’s now been a year, and Marty believes BCUC is dragging its feet in responding. But what makes him especially upset is that the BCUC quietly announced a public comment process with a short deadline in the middle of summer without telling many of the people most affected.
Marty believes his conversations and correspondence with Bennett played an important role in the minister asking BCUC the questions and says he’s also a registered intervener.
But BCUC never informed him of the comment process, even though a July 15 letter from BCUC to FortisBC and BC Hydro was supposedly copied to stakeholders.
The BCUC letter says BC Hydro and FortisBC compiled a list of approximately 200 communities in B.C. without access to natural gas, yet the BCUC is only posting a notice about the comment process in 21 small B.C. newspapers.
Some of those notices won’t appear until July 27, but the deadline for comments is Monday, Aug. 15.
Alison Thorson, director of policy, planning and customer relations with the BCUC, suggested the deadline could be flexible.
“We encourage residents to request an extension if this timing does not work for them,” she said. “The comment process dates were set after the timetable was established in a linked proceeding … and considering that B.C. Hydro and FortisBC must submit reports to the commission on the residential conservation rate by Sept. 16, 2016.”
More troubling, says Marty, is that the list of 200 affected communities excludes many communities without gas that are close to towns and cities that have gas.
Anarchist Mountain, for example, isn’t on the list because Osoyoos has natural gas. So BCUC didn’t inform residents there.
“Evidently, you have assumed that those residents without access to natural gas are all located in those towns that do not have access to natural gas,” Marty told the BCUC in a letter last week. “In fact, thousands of such B.C. residents are in rural areas located outside towns that have access to natural gas.”
Thorson said the commission reached out to people in impacted communities by directly contacting municipalities and regional districts without access to natural gas and by advertising “in all community newspapers that reach these communities.”
The 21 community newspapers, she added, reach about 113 communities of the 200 identified as not being served by natural gas.
“We welcome comments from all B.C. residents who have no access to natural gas,” Thorson said.
She added that BCUC has reached out to Marty and has asked him for a specific date for his deadline extension request.
Marty isn’t sure if the omission of smaller communities without gas, but near larger communities that have it, is a sign of ignorance by BCUC of the electricity markets they regulate or whether it’s willful.
They should know that people around Osoyoos and Oliver have been among those complaining the loudest, he said.
“You should be aware of our existence since over the past few years you have received numerous complaints from us, including a petition with more than 600 signatures,” he told BCUC.
Marty said BCUC’s process “is failing to do what the minister desired.” He’s calling on BCUC to advertise the comment process throughout the province and to extend the comment deadline.
“I will be interested to see how they respond, because if they essentially say ‘no,’ they’re not going to redo their consultation process, then it’s no longer an accident,” said Marty. “It’s a deliberate shunning of the most vocal group on this issue.”
RICHARD McGUIRE
Osoyoos Times
