SOMBA K'E/YELLOWKNIFE - Yellowknife's rates will remain the same in the midst of a territory-wide electricity rate revamp aimed at levelling the playing field for outside communities.

Until the new rates took hold Dec. 1, diesel-powered communities were paying up to ten times more than Yellowknifers for power.

"This program was targeted to bring down the highest-cost-community rates (and) at the same time not increase other people's," said Joe Acorn, chair of the Public Utility Board.

Businesses in Nahanni Butte, for example, were paying almost $2.15 per kWh before the changes. As of Dec. 1, businesses will pay 40.20 cents per kWh - a reduction of $7,327 per month if the business is billed for 4,000 kWh. Yellowknife's power rate for businesses is 17.60 cents per kWh, and that has not changed.

Residential rates for Yellowknife are 22.37 cents per kWh and continue to remain unchanged.

The way this was achieved - lowering rates in the diesel communities without other communities seeing an increase - was mainly through the restructuring of rate zones and the injection of government money.

The corporation's head office costs have been redistributed. The report which recommended all these changes - Efficient, Affordable and Equitable: Creating a Brighter Future, tabled earlier this year - recommended $4 million in head office costs be lifted from the shoulders of the diesel communities and put on the hydro communities, such as Yellowknife and Hay River.

To offset this cost increase for hydro communities, the government put $6 million into the corporation's stabilization fund - a fund the corporation uses to recover costs when there are sharp increases in costs such as the price of diesel - to pay it off in full. The report said this would reduce the per kiloWatt hour charge by about 1.8 cents, which was collected on users' monthly bills to fill up that fund.

"Even though Yellowknife gets a greater proportion now of the head office costs of (the Power Corp.), the $6 million that the GNWT put in to pay off the stabilization funds almost equals that amount," said Acorn.

Acorn noted that if these changes to NWT rates didn't happen, Yellowknife could have possibly experienced a decrease in rates once that fund was paid - but then again, prices of diesel could jump in the future and the fund could need more money.

Also, the government will not collect the yearly $3.5 million it usually collects from the corporation for the next two years.

Mike Bradshaw, spokesperson for the corporation, said the decreased costs in the diesel communities could trickle back benefits to Yellowknife.

"As the economy in smaller communities goes, so goes the economy in Yellowknife which is a central supplier, so on a larger scale there are some pretty significant benefits," said Bradshaw.

"The important thing, from our perspective ... is that communities that had prohibitive rates in the past are now going to have more affordable rates - especially commercial entities."

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