Yukon gov’t not swayed by petition to demand investigation into power utilities’ billing practices
Petition says Yukon Utilities Board should investigate ‘perceived or actual inaccuracy’ in customer billing
Yukon’s energy minister has ruled out, at least for now, asking the utilities regulator to investigate the billing practices of the territory’s electricity utilities.
Minister Ted Laking was responding to a petition tabled earlier this week in the legislature by the opposition, urging the government to order that investigation.
The petition was tabled by Riverdale North MLA Carmen Gustafson, the NDP justice critic, and had been signed by 1,101 people as of Monday, according to the party.
It says the Yukon Utilities Board should investigate ATCO Electric Yukon and the Yukon Energy Corporation for “perceived or actual inaccuracy” in customer billing.
“Yukoners are concerned about affordability of residential electricity rates, as approved by the Yukon Utilities Board, have increased,” the petition reads, in part.
It urges Justice Minister Laura Lang to use powers she has under section 18 of the Public Utilities Act to ask the regulatory board to investigate.
The petition asks that the board look into the utilities’ billing practices between July 2025 and July 2026, “for the purpose of ensuring customers have been accurately and fairly billed for electricity.”
It says the investigation should cover bill readability, reported inconsistent billing periods, the use of meter estimates against actual consumption and the differences between the two, in addition to any issues brought up by the board that could have led to billing issues.
It also asked that the public have the chance to participate in the investigation.
Laking on Wednesday acknowledged customers’ frustrations and said the issue warrants further investigation — but he said it shouldn’t be taxpayers who pay for it, through the utilities regulator. The government instead told ATCO earlier this year to hire its own third-party auditor.
He said that if the government is not satisfied with that investigation, it could revisit the issue.
The petition tabled this week follows months of mounting complaints over apparent billing inconsistencies by the utilities.
In June, the two utilities acknowledged that a transition to a new billing system in 2023 had led to “variability in estimates, account calculations, payment processing, and billing timing” in the previous three years.
Weeks later, in August, ATCO Electric Yukon said it would hire an independent investigator to look into its billing system.
Gustafson said at the time that the regulator should do its own investigation, “so that Yukoners know that is being done independently and outside of the power of the company that they’re having the problems with.”
With files from Dana Hatherly
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Russia: Europe boosts LNG trade ahead of the ban, The Independent Barents Observer
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