Happy Friday Everyone!

Wow! We are at over 1,000 signatures.  I'm so appreciative of everyone's courage in signing our petition and asking for the City to do something about the current council. 

Yesterday at 8:20 am MT I sent an email to Allison VanDyke, chair of the Committee for Energy and Infrastructure.  In that email I asked for clarity to be provided as follows:

"I have been told by someone intimately acquainted with the workings of the City that yes Shila Sharp was correct in part of her statement to the Medicine Hat News for this past Saturday's article in that the AUC sets rates, but that she was misleading in her statement that "That isn’t a Medicine Hat decision." I've included a snippet from that article below for ease of reference.

"In an interview with the News, Sharps acknowledges that cost of living is a difficult problem not just for the local community but across the country, but that the power to handle such matters comes from other levels of government. “Regulated rates are set by the province,” says Sharps in regards to higher costs on utilities, energy and groceries. “That isn’t a Medicine Hat decision.”

The person I was speaking with advised that this is in fact a Medicine Hat decision because the City has no obligation to charge the regulated rate. They stated that the City of Medicine Hat can charge whatever rate it chooses, and can set any methodology as long as it doesn't discriminate against users in Medicine Hat and area.

They went on to explain that the policy (and I apologize if that is not the right term) that the City is currently using as the reason that it's hands are tied, is a policy that was created by the City for when rates were very low and was not meant to deal with high utility rates, nor is it suited to do so. 

They also said that the City could put a new policy in place to replace the existing policy to address this - and could continue to generate a profit by charging higher rates on the energy sold to other areas. The City could still even make a small profit on it's own community and be at our around $0.10 vs the current rates of over $0.20.

They finished by stating that even if the City chooses to not fix or replace the current policy, you could easily provide us all with energy rebates.

Is this true?  If not, what pieces are not true and please give references to policies or legislation that prove these are not true and/or that prevents you all from taking action. 

I would appreciate clear and concise answers, references or links to the rate setting policy and reasons why you cannot action each of these things if that is your stance."

Twenty-four hours later I've not received so much as an acknowledgement of the email, never mind a reply. 

Five hours after sending this email, the City posted on their Facebook page about utilities. It is the same messages of deferral and blame, and lack of clarity we've come to know with this administration. It insinuates we need them to break down the information for us into "bite-sized chunks". I'm tired of being blamed by the City and Council for not understanding their unhelpful and vague explanations. 

The reality is we need them to action.  Not bury us in content they think justifies their inaction (when we are starting to see their inaction is only the fault of them, and them alone)

Kelly Allard posted a beautiful reply - found here: https://www.facebook.com/kelly4mhcc/posts/686033750211947 which discounts the City's claim in their post that Council is acting.  Despite the claim of the City that council is actioning this, we have actually been waiting for 18 months.

What we are seeing are the effects of an extremely inexperienced Council. They do not know enough about the history of Council, of the City, of the goings on to be able to make decisions. They recently asked for clarity on what clarity they need to provide. While they struggle to navigate jobs they can't do, we pay the price.

I'm disappointed.  I had hoped Tuesday of this week would have rolled around with a meaningful response from the City.  It's now Friday and we have nothing.  We have two previous council members calling them out on their incompetence and misleading communication. They remain silent. Where is our Mayor? 

As I said in my petition, this is all symptomatic of a lack of qualified leadership at their table. I do not claim that they are not qualified in their day jobs - I'm sure they are. I do see them failing to perform their City Council roles. I don't believe all of them to be this way - I think there are some on the current Council who are being hostage by the inexperience of some of the new.  

While we pay ridiculous utility bills.

Please continue to put pressure on the city.  You can find the council members contact information here. Please be kind if you do reach out to them - regardless of their poor performance, they are still human beings. Name calling and aggressive behavior won't serve our cause.

Thanks so much,

Nicole