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City council should leave the utilities business to the experts

City should invite some ratepayers to sit on review

City Council would be well advised to carefully read and consider Mike Killick's letter in the July 20 edition of the Gazette and also his written submission to city council respecting the proposed city utility corporation. St. Albert does not produce any electricity, we have no gas wells that the city can tap into and the water in the Sturgeon River is not fit to drink so if we get into the utility business we will have to buy those commodities from existing producers and add a layer of costly bureaucracy to our already bloated civil service.

Council should look at the experience of the poor folks of Chestermere who, like St. Albert, have no direct source of utilities yet got into the utility business with dire results. Ratepayers soon found out they faced high utility bills, poor service and this past June their city council was forced to shut down the utility, leaving a multi-million-dollar debt that will take 15 years to pay off. In addition, they have several costly termination claims of former employees to deal with. I recently talked to a former Senator and MLA who bought a lot at Chestermere many years ago and was hoping to retire there with reasonable costs and now has to face high taxes as a result of this ill considered project.

His advice: Leave the utilities business to those who have been in it for years. I would add that there is competition out there as well to keep costs reasonable.

I join Mr. Killick in urging the city to drop this project but if they insist in proceeding, at the very least retain a consulting firm to do a study which would include a review of the Chestermere debacle. I also suggest that the city invite some ratepayers to sit on this review and put my name on the list willing to serve ... pro bono.

Bob Russell, St. Albert




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