Public frustration over 'ridiculous' power rate hikes at day 1 of public hearing

Yellowknife resident Katherine Harris says it's a "good month" when her monthly power bill hits $400.

If the bill's total comes to $300, she calls it a "bargain month." Come winter time, she says she's paid up to a whopping $550 to the territory's utilities provider.

"Our bill, I feel, is exorbitant ridiculous," Harris told CBC News Monday.

Harris was one of only two members of the public at the hearing where the the Northwest Territories Power Corporation's rate hike plan will be under scrutiny until Friday. The proposal is to increase rates by 12.8 per cent over three years.

Harris says she has a small family of three. Her home isn't lavish either it's a modest 2,000 square foot, detached home just outside of Yellowknife's downtown. When she moved from across town a few years ago, she said she saw her bill "literally double overnight."

Since then, Harris says her family has been doing everything they can tolower costs: upgrading their fridge and stove, "unplugging the cars half the time," and switching to energy-saving light bulbs, among other habits to conserve energy.

"We sit at night in one room with a single lamp on," said Harris. "We have 24 hours of daylight almost right now, yet our power bill consistently stays high. There's something wrong."

Harris said she's contacted the utilities provider several times over her hefty bills.

She quoted a memorable response she got aboutseven years ago, yet the problem still persists today: "The answer was, well, you just had a baby. You're doing more laundry [But] nothing had changed in terms of how we were living."

"The cost just keeps going up and up and up," said Harris.

Residential customers in the N.W.T. have seen rates increase twice in the past year: 4.8 per cent last August, and another four per cent this April.

The rate application being examined this week asks for another four per cent increase next year.

The Power Corporation said the increases are thanks to declining power sales,the cost of inflation, increasingcosts for water licensing and monitoring, and the costs associated with fixing aging infrastructure.

• RELATED |Here's why the N.W.T Power Corp. wants to hike power rates, again

Response from executives 'dismissive'

At the meeting Monday, Harris and her next-door neighbour expressed their worries to the room full of community groups, executives from the power corp.and the public utilities board overseeing the hearings.

Their main concerns were the rising costs and the list of extra charges on the bill.

After a very brief acknowledgement, the hearings proceeded.

"[The response] was dismissive," said Harris. "[The] comment was that direction from the government has not been to decrease power costs."

"Nothing that is presented at the hearing is ignored," said Gordon Van Tighem, chairman of the utilities board."[Publicconcerns] will be a part of the evaluation of the hearing, which will lead to the ruling."

For the rest of the week, community groups also called intervenors will question, clarify, and cross-examine the costs and rates described in the Power Corporation's general rate application which was submitted last year.

Harris says she was "disappointed" with the public turnout and hopes more people will share their stories throughout the week.

At 1 p.m. every day, the public is invited to share concerns and feedback at the Explorer Hotel.

This public hearing is the final step before a decision on the power corporation's proposal to raise rates through to 2019.

• RELATED |Town of 84 people unplugs pop machine, saves $9K a year

Reach priscilla.hwang@cbc.ca.