The Town of Battleford has followed the City of North Battleford's direction and has voted to use Connect Energy as its supplier of natural gas for the year starting Nov. 1. But it wasn't a unanimous decision.
The commodity price will be $3.45 per gigajoule while SaskEnergy's cost is $3.82. Even when a customer makes a contract with a broker, SaskEnergy remains the distribution utility, still reads the meters and sends out the bills, and still provides standard maintenance and emergency service.
Councillor Shelley Boutin-Gervais said, over a year based on 100,000 cubic metres, Connect Energy's proposal equates to only about $1,340 in savings. She didn't agree those savings were significant enough to use a supplier other than SaskEnergy.
"We have people that work for SaskEnergy that live in the community. SaskEnergy sponsors events. The fellows that work for SaskEnergy that live in Battleford probably pay four or five times that much in taxes," said Boutin-Gervais.
"With SaskEnergy, the profits stay in Saskatchewan, go toward education, health, highways, infrastructure and they actually have people who live in the communities," she added.
Councillor David George disagreed, saying SaskEnergy is still the supplier, they are still making money and they still support the community.
"It's six of one and a half dozen of another. And we're saving some dollars," he said.
Whether SaskEnergy does or doesn't sponsor community events, he said, "it's still our tax dollars."
Connect Energy is a privately-owned company based in western Canada serving commercial, institutional and industrial natural gas users in British Columbia and Saskatchewan. They are member of SUMAdvantage, a partnership initiative of the Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association.
Town Administrator Sheryl Ballendine said the Town was with another group previously and has been with Connect Energy before. There is only one time a year when they can opt into this kind of program.
In Saskatchewan, larger users have had ability to choose energy providers for natural gas since 1987. For smaller users, competition was introduced in November 1998.
At the last council meeting, members voted to not renew their contract with Future Now Energy.
