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The Kenney government says it wants to get energy rebates into the hands of consumers quickly.
While it’s looking to speed along its financial help to offset soaring electricity and natural gas costs, it can’t say when the relief will arrive.
With commodity prices sizzling and inflation running at a red-hot clip of 6.7 per cent across Canada in March from levels seen a year earlier — reaching its highest point since Don Getty was premier in 1991 — it better hurry up.
Waiting for the wheels of government to slowly get moving should not be an option.
Dale Nally, the province’s associate minister for natural gas and electricity, introduced legislation Wednesday to enable the government to provide utility rebates to consumers. It will include $150 in retroactive rebates tied to rising electricity prices during the first three months of the year.
The legislation will also allow the province to bring in regulations to cap natural gas prices at $6.50 per gigajoule, a promise the UCP government made in the budget that was supposed to start in October.
However, the trigger price has already been eclipsed in Alberta, well before the next winter heating season draws near.
So when will assistance for consumers and small businesses actually arrive?
“The power rebate will be largely dependent on how long it takes the utility retailers to be able to adjust the billing systems,” Nally told reporters.
“I’m hopeful that (it) will be in June and for some retailers it may go into July.”
More than 1.9 million Alberta consumers, including residential customers, farms and business operators, should see the benefit in the form of $50 rebates for three months, applied to their electricity bills.
The measure will cost the treasury about $280 million.
Electricity prices in the province remain high, with Alberta Power Pool prices averaging $89 per megawatt-hour (MW-h) on Tuesday.
Wholesale prices have averaged $94.50 per MW-h so far this year, roughly the same level as in 2021, but 55 per cent above prices during the same period in 2020.
The timing of the natural gas rebate is a little more elusive.
On Tuesday, Premier Jason Kenney seemed to indicate the help would be coming sooner than the initial October timeline.
On Wednesday, Nally appeared less definitive.
“We haven’t written the regulation for this yet. But as we write the regulation, I’ll be able to provide more information on those time frames,” he said.
“We wanted to provide a program that covered the winter months to provide real support to Alberta. What we’re seeing now (with) these high prices in April is unprecedented. It’s related to the geopolitical events that we’re seeing with the war in Ukraine.
“And so that’s why we’re having those conversations, to see if something needs to be done.”
If?
Maybe the government doesn’t know precisely what it will do yet. Maybe it’s just trying to get all of the details buttoned down.
But Alberta consumers and businesses are facing the pinch of higher prices today.
Inflation is percolating across the country.
Statistics Canada reported Wednesday that the consumer price index in Alberta jumped by 6.5 per cent in March, reaching its highest level in the province since 2003.
Nationally, gasoline prices climbed almost 40 per cent over the past year. Grocery bills were up 8.7 per cent.
In Alberta, prices for natural gas this summer are expected to average around $5.70 per gigajoule with “upside potential,” said industry analyst Ian Archer, an associate director with S&P Global Commodity Insights.
Sluggish production growth in the United States and the lowest gas storage levels in Canada since the winter of 2013-14 are setting the stage for strong prices throughout the year, although volatility remains the order of the day.
“We need to fill inventories this summer and that will keep price pressure on in Canada, in particular, this summer. And that raises fears winter prices could be even higher,” Archer said.
Rising inflation also ratchets up the likelihood the Bank of Canada will boost interest rates faster and higher than initially expected as it seeks to cool off the economy.
With surging costs for food and energy, pressure will build for wage increases as consumer purchasing power erodes.
“The biggest challenge for many Albertans is that incomes are not keeping up with rising prices,” according to an economic report issued Wednesday by the Business Council of Alberta.
Council chief economist Mike Holden noted the province generally benefits from elevated energy prices, although surging inflation is hitting as labour shortages are affecting many businesses.
“We have not seen the kind of wage pressure in Alberta to the same degree as we’ve seen in other provinces — so far,” Holden said.
“But I think it will start to have that effect.”
Homebuilder Dhruv Gupta, president of the Akash Group of Companies, said inflation and higher interest rates are not only driving up costs for labour and supplies, but also affecting how much consumers can afford to pay for housing.
As a company that builds homes in Edmonton and Calgary, Gupta estimates labour costs have increased by 25 to 30 per cent in the past six months. That’s on top of growing expenses for lumber, windows and cement, where fuel surcharges are now being added by suppliers.
“For a whole generation, this is probably the first time we’re experiencing this type of inflation, so we’re trying to adjust on the fly, but it’s not easy,” he said.
“The input costs have risen so much that we have to pass it on. And it’s making it harder and harder to buy a home for the average Albertan.”
It’s also making affordability measures like energy rebates more essential for many Albertans — whenever the help arrives.
Chris Varcoe is a Calgary Herald columnist.
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