FortisBC's recently announced nine per cent rate increase for natural gas, claimed to be as a result of the recent pipeline explosion right outside Prince George, neither holds up to evidence nor common sense and should be investigated as a matter of top priority by all levels of government and the B.C. Utilities Commission.
Despite a short term spike in market natural gas prices, at present they are still at levels not seen since winter 2013, and the commodity is historically cheap in real, inflation-adjusted terms. While the cause of the pipeline explosion is still not known to general public (cue the conspiracy theories, but I digress), I must believe that events such as these are insured, so using it as a pretext for a price hike passed on consumers smacks of a greedy money grab at the most vulnerable time of the year with winter just setting in. It has been reported that the impact of the rate hike will average about 68 dollars a year. Well, two things come to mind:
1) Lower income households will be hit harder because they tend to live in less energy-efficient homes and spend more of their incomes to heat them, and much of the annual increase will be concentrated in precisely the upcoming winter months.
2) From my own personal anecdote, my gas bill last February for my modest home was almost $400 after all the fees and taxes. A nine per cent increase would have added $36 in that month alone. It has also remained unclear if the price hike is limited to customers in the north, or is also being passed on downstream to the coast and the U.S. where the pipelines are ultimately headed.
It's not like we have a choice of gas providers or even alternatives to natural gas for heating our homes. I am very thankful for the mild weather we have had in the region so far, but with all the advertising on social media (incidentally by FortisBC) advising us to turn our thermostats down, it would come as an ill-timed slap in the face if we get hit with a severe cold snap, or if we actually experience an unprecedented shortage.
I call on elected members at all levels of government to investigate FortisBC's planned rate increase and why, even after the pipeline has been fixed, we are still being fed the line of significantly reduced capacity.
David Oh
Prince George
