Don't need and can't afford this what exactly do we have to raise the rate for???

It seems that every time I pay a Power bill recently, the amount keeps going up. We live in a twenty year old split level in Prince Albert (1400 sq. ft) and for the first 12 years the average annual price for power seemed reasonable. However, in the last two years it seems that every year the price continues to soar and of course as it gets higher, percentage driven hikes means even greater increases as opposed to set dollar amounts ie...3.5 % on $200 dollars, then 5% on $210 dollars etc... so as your power price gets higher so does the increase. I am outraged that Saskpower can even apply for these kinds of hikes every year. My power goes out on a regular basis and takes up to three hours to fix. They say or blame some other box connection that periodically breaks down but this year alone we’ve at least 5 power outages. And they want More Money!!! They say they’re getting away from coal burning yet I see no evidence of this. The rest of the world is going renewable; Does Saskatchewan even have any turbine windmills, or large scale solar arrays or any other forms of collecting free energy? I don’t know but my power rate continues to go up. I am a retired Federal Employee that transferred to Saskatchewan back in 2001 but the Harper Gov’t closed our Sask Offices after 12 years. If rates continue to climb I will be forced to move out of this province or sell my home. Better yet, put solar panels on the house and sell excess back to Saskpower at my rate. They should get a cost of living increase just like I do for my pension. This year its 1.6% .Thanks for this opportunity.    

Cut Sask power waste I can help as I am sask power retiree. One thing cut the 2 hour coffee breaks at Humptys restaurant. Another example two thirty five mile trips to do a half hour job. What I'm saying is people should work a full eight hour day for eight hours pay.

Spending in this corporation is out of control, please stop blowing my money, then you would not need a rate increase!

3.5 percent is still too high. The target inflation rate for our country, and for the consumers, and I'm speaking as a consumer, is 2 percent, thus 3.5 is still way too high. ‎You can't put up ( or justify) a rate increase to be handed out to all areas in one segment of the economy. Energy is up- oil price is up, fuels are up, energy supplied by hydro are all up. Don't even think that 3.5 percent is ok because it is lower than 5 percent. 5 is a completely wild number.  Closer or exactly 2 percent is the only thing you can justify. Or Mr. Poloz at the Bank of Canada on the next rate hike will have to hear about Sask Power hikes going wild and cause of runaway inflation in Saskatchewan. Something we in Saskatchewan just can't pull money out of our already depleted bank account for runaway inflation.  Sincerely, ******

I am sick and tired of our power rates increasing continually to be used like a ATM machine for the government.The power rates increases are being used as a general revenue fund.This has to stop.Giving the GHT deal 25 million and now we are expected to pay for it!!Sask power is one of our sacred crowns.No more increases.

If you are saving so much money, then why do you need to increase the amount we pay for power? It doesn't make any sense. Is there going to be a break for those of us on single incomes?

The Saskpower CEO helped himself to a 7% wage increase from $566 000 up to $633 000. And now they are requesting a rate increase from residents to pay for this gob-smacking raise. OUTRAGEOUS!

There is no excuse for this blatant entitlement. If the company has this much money to allow for such a raise, they, evidently, have too much money in the account and truly have no need for an honest rate increase. Thank you for your consideration.

Meetings and comments on the rate increases are a complete sham to placate the gullible public.This has all been decided ahead of time. If you got rid of most of the overpaid, underworked and incompetent Executives,Board members and Administrators with big expense accounts.You would not have to keep increasing rates.

A 2.5 to 3% increase would be acceptable. 5% seems a little excessive.

Sask Power is asking for rate increases where you know people aren't getting increases and old age pension since such two to be paying these(?) constant increases and they're always saying they have more more people to service. Well if there's more people the service there should be more people paying power bills. Unless all these new people that they're bringing in are getting it free. You know it's just terribly annoying. Maybe they should get rid of some of the high price vice presidents or such that aren't necessary or and I know that being a crown that these people are extremely highly paid from the bottom up you know maybe cut back a little with management expenses. It's just getting outta hand. You know I'm sorry you know how are people supposed to live there. Ron Lowen(?) comes in fixed income and what have you. I don't even have TV to try and survive nor do I have my cell phone or such you know taxes are up. I mean it's just it's just getting totally out of hand.

 After watching the presentation on October 3, and given that SaskPower is on a dividend holiday, why the need to generate a ROE of 8.5%? The health of SaskPower (ie an industry comparable ROE) is never in question, given it's monopoly status. Further, looking at the debt ratio of the investor based companies, they are roughly half of SaskPower. I would suggest the investor lead companies get the concept of not being in an unsustainable debt crisis, otherwise their share value would be decimated. Good thing our crown owned monopoly can get out of debt by asking for rate increases!

 I have just discovered that SaskPower will be charging a 1.65% convenience fee to pay my power bill with a credit card. SaskPower justifies this by claiming this is a credit card company charge, not a SaskPower charge. If I could only go to a competitor, I might be able to find a company that understands what customer service is all about. Since we are discussing SaskPower rate hikes and the justification for those, I demand that SaskPower find more efficiencies or reduce expenditures to absorb this credit card cost, DO NOT make me pay for the privilege of paying my bill with a credit card. Only a crown owned monopoly would even think about doing something so asinine as this!

The latest request for a rate increase is ludicrous. If the 5% increase is allowed, this would make an almost 25% increase in the last 5 to 6 years for power rates. When has my or anyone's pay increased that much in that short of a period? The Leader Post ran an article recently outlining that the CEO of SaskPower was the highest paid CEO of all Crown corporations. The fat needs to be trimmed not the ratepayers gouged due to managerial incompetence.

I think if the government quit taking dividends from the Crowns annually to line up the provincial budget to make it look good. INSTEAD THE PROFITS MADE BY THE CROWNS should be reinvested in building the capital assets to continue the great service they provide, without the double taxation planned by the government .  Politics should be taken out of the CROWNS so they can fulfill there mandate of providing service at a reasonable cost. I AM ON A FIXED INCOME, cannot sustain continous unnecessary increases in cost of living. I don't think there should be a  I crease, the corporation is making good profits to make the improvements, stop paying the dividends to government coffers.

 I, along with many former civil servants have grown accustomed to annual pension increases of 0.7%or less. How can the government of Saskatchewan, in good conscience keep raising the various utility rates by 5% annually. It should find a way to spend less on the salaries of current senior officials which are now exorbitant to pay for any utility increases..

 I am on a fixed income. Please explain to me how I am going to pay for this increase? It seems that all these crown corporations continually have there hands out for more. The people of this province have been hammered by tax increases municipally, provincially and federally. Why? We need a break! Why doesn't the rate review panel do their job and stand up for the people it's suppose to protect. Say no to these crown executives who continually ask for more. They need to look internally for cost savings and not take the easy way out and Put the burden on the people yet again.

I most strenuously object to the proposed SaskPower rate increase based on the false premise that SaskPower needs to have an industry comparable benchmark rate of return while significantly investing in infrastructure for the future. Any privately run company would ask that shareholders accept a lower rate of return while embarking on a significant investment back into the company, in this case a significant investment in infrastructure for the future. Private companies do this because they know their stock price will get hammered if they try to maintain the dividend and significantly invest for some purpose. My suggestion is that SaskPower reduce their rate of return to zero over the time period of this infrastructure investment, resulting in no need for this rate increase and potentially reducing the need for any additional rate increase over the next few years. As a shareholder, I am willing to accept this reduced rate of return and reduced dividend. As a customer of the monopoly, at least I can sleep at night knowing that SaskPower is being managed in a reasonable, business acceptable manner. Anything else smacks of incompetent governance, something only a crown owned monopoly could do.

I am a senior on a shrinking income, and I strongly object to rate increases when the shortfall in Sask Power infra structure could have been avoided if Bill BOyds shenanigans and land overpayment hadn't occurred. Bill, you can pay me power bill!

I'm extremely angry about being charged for THREE SaskPower rate increases in just over a year. The last two increases were huge, and my household budget no longer balances! Never mind that my contract for groundskeeping for the Government's Social Housing was frozen in 2002 ! And my property managers contract was slashed in 2007 (I don't even have enough $ to buy printer cartridges, stamps and paper) - Prior to '07 - we had a budget to buy what ever we needed. After Bill Boyd, Minister responsible for SaskPower, paid $25 MILLION out of SaskPower's coffers to buy GTH land. This is why our rates are increasing. Not all the advertising from SaskPower about suddenly needing $ for infrastructure !!! If SP hadn't bought GTH land, they'd have enough money for routine, ongoing infrastructure costs. Go collect the money from Bill Boyd, after his shady $25 Million SaskPower deal.

Good Day We do realize that there is a growing demand and that there is upkeep/upgrades that need to be made to our current power grid as well as these demands and upgrades cost money.We do give kudos to SKPower in taking a reduction to their net earnings but those of us in the Ag industry, who are being charged more because we live in the country, also take cuts in our profits all the time and we have no place or nowhere to go to apply for an increase to help us with improving our investments which in turn helps provide food for all of us!  We cannot charge more for the food we produce even though our costs go up continuously; we have to take what is given to us!!We live in the RM of Enterprise and there have been upgrades to power lines in our area but our power continues to go out either once a day, sometimes consecutively, or sometimes even three times a day!!.  In fact the power has gone out here four times again in these last two days!!! This is very frustrating and hard on our appliances and electrical equipment, such as computers, printers, etc., which are not cheap to replace. Also SKPower will not replace any of these items even with proper documentation/proof of days that they knew the power was out in this area.  We have been told that it is the birds sitting on the line!!.  We've been here more than 40 years; there has always been birds sitting on the lines. On the majority of the times - the power goes out when there are no birds on the lines, which I believe and so do others, is a lame excuse on SKPower's part.  Plus over the last 5-7 years these power flickers/outages have been increasing and SKPower has received calls/complaints as myself and several neighbors have called into SKPower only to be told that it is the birds.  Well this situation is definitely for the birds!!!We do not have a problem with applications for an increase when there is required work to be done to keep us warm and have access to all the necessary electrical equipment available to us.  But we do not believe that people, companies, etc., need to make millions or billions in profits/bonuses in order to live a sustainable life.  Yes, they need to make a profit otherwise why invest in such an infrastructure.  But do they need to make these millions or billions at the cost of other people's profits that are needed in order to live a sustainable life??  Just something to think about and rationalize the justifications.Don't take us the wrong way - we do know that SKPower does donate a lot of money to organizations that need help.  But please remember that this is probably due to the profits that are generated through this infrastructure!We are asked for our opinions and we're giving it:  until these power outages/flickers are resolved, not just in our area, we do not agree with the application for an increase.  Sorry, but this is how we feel.Once we can't afford the price of power, will SKPower donate free power or take a reduction in their earnings to help us stay warm??  This is not meant to be nasty - we're asking an honest question.Thank you for your time in considering our opinions.Frustrated Clients

I don't feel it's in good faith that saskpower should be asking for yet another rate hike, how is it that they keep raising the price and most everyone in sask has stalemate on their pay increases. Tell saskpower to look internal for the money they need, I'm sure there's more than enough money available judging by the amount of mistakes saskpower has made just publicly. So I say no to this rate increase.

Regarding requested 5.1% increase effective Mar. 1/18 (following 5% and 3.5% increase eff. Jul 1/16 and Jan. 1/17 - 27% increase past 5 years per the SP article Aug. 16/17 ) I ask - is SK Power going the way of Ontario where power will be out of reach for many? Don't current and past rates have a built in slush fund for depreciated and obsolete infrastructure? That would be considered good management. Most people do not get a 5.1% increase in salaries/pensions. Disposable income in Saskatchewan is dropping as all "costs" keep rising. Does SK Power make a profit? If so, where does it go? to the Province for general revenue? If so, isn't the profit really another tax charged on top of the other taxes shown on our utility statements? Profits, if any, should be held in a fund to pay for replacing aging and outdated infrastructure. I understand that some power is made using natural gas which is at an all time low price. Aren't profits higher as a result? The SP article talks about a $100 power bill and an increase of $14.12 per month ($170 per year) by Mar. 2018. Aren't many power bills already greater than $100 per month? Mine is, so my proposed increase will be considerably higher, plus all the taxes and sir charges that go along with it. Oh, and don't forget about the Federal carbon tax that will hit one day, maybe Jan. 1 2018. What will the increase on that be? 10%? I pity anyone who is thinking of buying an electric car! Ontario energy pricing here we come??? Don't make that mistake. People will once again be leaving this province.

I am a resident of White City SK, and we have constant troubles with our power going out as glitches and full fledged power outages. This causes issues with our electronics, appliances and creates great inconveniences for everyone at home. If Saskpower is granted their rate increase I would EXPECT an explanation on their website as to EXACTLY WHERE the money will be used. I'm not happy that each year our rate goes up but our service gets worse. Thank you

"Hi, it's ***** from Weyburn  and I just wanted to let you know I'm not in favour of that 5% SaskPower hike. Our wages are going down and I'm pretty sure nobody's gonna be able to forward power. Thanks. Bye bye