Open letter to Bruce McLennan, chair of the Yukon Utilities Board,
On June 28,2013 the Utilities Consumers wrote to you with concerns about two Board Orders 2013-04 and 2013-05 raising the rates of Yukon electrical ratepayers by approximately 20.5 per cent in one single month.
UCG asked for clarification on how these rate riders were finally determined and how they would be applied equally to all customer groups, including industrial mines.
The Board did not respond to this notice for several months, until UCG kept requesting updates.
Finally, on August 18 the Board wrote back stating: “Please be advised that the Board does not clarify its Board Orders as the Board considers them to be self- explanatory.” This was long after a date for which UCG nor any other intervener could request a review and variance on these orders or perhaps even an appeal through the courts.
We, as members of the public are appalled by this arrogant and self-righteous behaviour by a government body firsthand selected to represent this same public.
If we, as an intervener in rate hearings for many years now, do not fully embrace the final outcome of such a process and you simply brush us off with such contempt, how can the general public even attempt to understand that your deliverance was fair and for the “public good”?
It would appear that you, sir, should stay on your retired island far away from us Yukoners who certainly do not need an ‘outsider’ to tell us what is best for us with no questions asked. The same holds true for your sleepy-eyed pacemakers from Alberta who have absolutely no ties nor interest in the consequences of their assessments they continually deliver to Yukon electricity ratepayers.
Roger Rondeau
Utilities Consumers’ Group