Nick Marty, an Anarchist Mountain opponent of two-tier electricity rates, says he’s encouraged by the regulatory commission’s willingness to hear from the public. (Richard McGuire file photo)

An outspoken local opponent of two-tier electricity rates, Nick Marty, says a recent public meeting in Osoyoos with regulatory officials encouraged him.

The British Columbia Utilities Commission (BCUC) as well as representatives of FortisBC, the utility providing electricity in the Osoyoos area, held the community outreach session June 28.

The BCUC is encouraging greater public participation in its review of FortisBC’s upcoming rate design application, which is expected to be filed in November.

“I was encouraged by that message, that BCUC is trying to get stronger customer involvement in the upcoming Fortis rate proceeding,” said Marty, a retired federal energy regulator who has led the fight by Anarchist Mountain community residents to get rid of two-tier rates.

While the two-tier system is ostensibly intended to encourage energy conservation, Marty insists it in fact penalizes residents without access to natural gas for space and water heating.

This, he says, results in a cross-subsidization of urban electricity consumers by rural consumers and doesn’t actually encourage conservation.

Marty’s preferred solution is a return to a flat electricity rate with the option for time-of-use billing, in which customers get a lower rate for consuming electricity in off-peak hours.

Meanwhile, Boundary-Similkameen MLA Linda Larson said she’s engaged in the process and she wants measures taken to address the electricity costs for residents without access to natural gas and those with low incomes.

The outreach session was held at the Watermark Beach Resort and drew a couple dozen people, who posed numerous questions. Similar sessions were held in Kelowna and Castlegar.

Marty said he also met earlier in the day with David Morton, chair and chief executive officer with the BCUC, and his message was similar – to encourage people to participate in the process as interveners.

“He said they are not going to tell Fortis what to come up with in the rate application,” Marty said. “He said it’s very important for them to have interveners bring out the issues I brought out.”

The BCUC makes its decisions based on the evidence that is put before them because it is a quasi-judicial process, Marty said.

If the utility wants to continue the two-tiered system, and the majority of interveners support that, it is difficult for the BCUC to change it, he said.

FortisBC in its presentation said it would be looking at several rate systems including a flat rate, a time-of-use rate, the current two-tier rate and changes to the two-tier system, Marty said.

There will be a follow-up session by FortisBC on Wednesday, July 26 at the Watermark Beach Resort from 6 to 8 p.m.

“I think the next session will be more interesting, because Fortis will start tipping their hand as far as what they’re actually coming forward with in November,” said Marty. “That of course is the big question. Are they going to two-tier, which is what BC Hydro did, or are they going to come forward with alternative designs? And are they actually going to represent any changes? So, we’ll see.”

Marty said he’s also hopeful because of the coming change in government and he thinks the openness by the BCUC and FortisBC may be a response to the changing political winds.

But MLA Linda Larson said last week that she is engaged in this issue and her office has submitted roughly 700 documents, both forwarded correspondence from constituents and original submissions.

“They have to deal with the areas without natural gas differently,” said Larson. “There’s the areas that do not have natural gas and then there’s low income and I need them both dealt with. I don’t care how they do it, but they have to deal with those.”

RICHARD McGUIRE

Osoyoos Times