SaskEnergy rate decrease coming, but so is the carbon tax

While the province has approved a rate change that will take SaskEnergy’s commodity rate to its lowest mark in 20 years, it says residents won’t be seeing a decrease on their bills with the incoming carbon tax taking effect.

The Government of Saskatchewan approved changes recommended by the rate review panel. The commodity rate will be lowered from $3.65 per gigajoule to $2.575/GJ — its lowest rate since 1999. The delivery service rate will increase by 3.4 per cent to provide additional funding for safety and infrastructure developments.

The province expects those changes to save people $90 per year for the average residential customer.

But the province says that due to the carbon tax, people won’t be seeing any of those savings. According to the province, the carbon tax will see an average increase of $109 with a further $54 annual increase each of the following three years.

All of these changes will come into effect Monday.

An interim rate decrease had been in effect since November.