Representatives of the Anarchist Mountain community will get a chance to take their concerns about two-tier electricity rates to B.C. Energy Minister Bill Bennett next month.

Nick Marty, who has argued that the rates unfairly affect rural residents without access to natural gas, confirmed this week that a conference call is scheduled with the minister in mid-April.

The call will also include Boundary-Similkameen MLA Linda Larson and Mark McKenney, president of the Anarchist Mountain Community Society.

Marty and McKenney have been trying to meet with the minister on the issue since they raised their concerns at a community meeting with Larson in mid-December. Larson agreed at the time to try to arrange this meeting.

The Residential Conservation Rate (RCR) was introduced in July 2012 for FortisBC home electricity customers.

As of Jan. 1, 2015, residential electricity customers pay 9.411 cents per kilowatt-hour (kWh) on the first 1600 kWh of electricity they use bimonthly. Any electricity consumed above the 1600 kWh threshold is charged at a higher rate of 14.172 cents per kWh.

FortisBC claims that 70 per cent of residential customers pay the same or less than they did under the previous flat-rate system.

Marty, who worked for years on energy conservation policy at the federal level, argues that the RCR is seriously flawed.

Customers without access to natural gas rely on electricity for space and water heating, he argues. Because 77 per cent of energy consumed by B.C. homes is for space and water heating, these customers often pay for the majority of their electricity at the higher tier rate.

On the other hand, if most B.C. residents have seen their rates drop under RCR despite not reducing their energy consumption, the lower prices are actually encouraging consumption, he says.

In effect, rural customers have been subsidizing the energy bills of urban consumers, Marty says. This policy is not only discriminatory, but it doesn’t encourage energy conservation, which was the justification for the RCR in the first place.

Anarchist Mountain residents have been running an online petition calling on the government to tell the BC Utilities Commission (BCUC) to change the RCR. Currently that petition has more than 500 signatures.

Marty and McKenney met on Feb. 13 by conference call with two senior officials with the Ministry of Energy and Mines, who later briefed Minister Bennett about the discussion.

Marty worries that the provincial government may simply defer the issue to the BCUC, an arm’s length agency regulating utilities such as FortisBC.

Both BCUC and FortisBC insist the present policy is working to conserve energy, despite Marty’s evidence to the contrary.

Marty wants the provincial government to make a statement that the RCR doesn’t reflect the provincial government’s energy conservation policy, thereby sending a signal to the BCUC that changes are needed.

“But I have no confidence after my discussion with the ministry that they will do that,” said Marty. “Indeed, I have my suspicions that the government is actually quite happy with the current structure because their true objective is not to encourage all B.C. residents to conserve, but rather to keep electricity rates low to the majority of B.C. residents (i.e. voters) by charging exorbitant rates to the minority of residents who use electricity for space and water heating.”

He added that he hopes the government will prove him wrong in his suspicions, but he’s not counting on it.

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times