Saskatoon city council votes for bylaw change to allow for power and electricity rebates

SaskPower and Saskatoon Light and Power (SL&P) customers are going to get a 10 per cent break on their bills, starting Dec.1, and it will continue on until Nov. 30, 2021.

It’s part of a SaskParty campaign promise called the Saskatchewan Economic Recovery Rebate.

During his campaign, Premier Scott Moe announced that the rebate would apply to all SaskPower customers, including homes, businesses, schools, farm customers, universities, hospitals and other institutions.

In order for Saskatoon Light and Power customers to also take advantage of the same program, city council passed a resolution Monday, Nov. 23 to amend Bylaw No, 2685 allowing for the rebate – which will be reimbursed by the provincial government.

According to Trevor Bell, director of Saskatoon Light and Power, “The rebate is revenue neutral for SL&P, and the benefit of the rebate just passes through our utility to the end-users. Other city-owned utilities such as Saskatoon Water are end-users of the electricity and will benefit from the rebate directly.  The impact to those utilities will be a decrease in cost of $628,600.

“City-owned facilities that are funded from the mill-rate, such as city hall, leisure centres, etc. will also benefit from the rebate.  This will reduce costs by $1,187,900.”

The city says Saskatoon Light and Power has historically set rates to match those set by SaskPower.