'Something wrong here:' Southend, Sask. residents shocked by $1K/month power bills

After Darrin Morin was elected to band council last year, he started collecting power bills from nearly everyone living in Southend.

The community of roughly 1,000 people is part of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation. The town sits on the south end of Reindeer Lake, only a few kilometres from the Whitesand hydroelectric dam.

"There is definitely something wrong here," said Morin.

He said a number of families living in reserve-owned housing pay more than $1,000 each month for electricity. 

"They're frustrated because they only make so much," said Morin. "To make a living in the north is very expensive and to pay a thousand dollars or more for a power bill? They just can't keep up."

Electricity usage "excessive, and defies reasonable explanation": report

The band hired Carl Ninine, a former chartered accountant and the current owner of All Nations Capital, to take a closer look at residential electrical consumption in Deschambault Lake, Sandy Bay, Pelican Narrows and Southend.

"It's very, very strange, very high consumption of domestic energy in Southend," said Ninine.

He looked at power bills for 143 residences in Southend collected in June 2018, then compared that with the bills for 140 homes the following December. Ninine excluded government-owned homes for RCMP officers and nurses from the study.

SaskPower billed Southend residents an average of $412.02 per month in the spring of 2018.

By December, their bills averaged $353.45.

From there, the band asked Ninine to compare Southend's results to power consumption for social housing units in three of its other communities. Nine said the average use was:

• 1,250 kilowatt hours per month for homes in Deschambault Lake
• 1,667 kilowatt hours per month for homes in Pelican Narrows
• 1,927 kilowatt hours per month for homes in Sandy Bay
• 4,022 kilowatt hours per month for homes in Southend

"This is a serious problem," Ninine said, noting his relatives in Southend do everything they can to minimize power use.

Ninine said it was also "strange" to see Southend residents' bills in June higher than those issued in December.

There are no natural gas lines in Southend. Some residents still use wood stoves for cooking and heating, but many newer builds rely solely on electric heat.

SaskPower says northern customers use more electricity

The utility said it charges rural customers the same rate, regardless of their proximity to power generating stations. It also encourages customers to track monthly usage online, or using its app.

SaskPower said bills for customers in Southend were likely higher on average in June because they were catching up after a meter read.

"In three different cases, the customer's meter was read in December 2017, and then again in June of 2018," said spokesman Jordan Jackle in an e-mail. "In all three cases, the meter reads indicated those customers used more power than was estimated."

"This difference was reflected on their June bill," he said.

The utility also said discrepancies in billing should even out as Saskatchewan moves towards a smart grid.

"We are always willing to listen to the concerns of our customers and communities," said Jackle. "Anyone with questions about their bill is encouraged to contact us."

The utility also recommends people check their homes for heat loss.

"Things like insulation, things like proper windows and insulation around doors," said Jackle. "Those things really are crucial in keeping that heat trapped inside."

Consultant said utility's explanations "do not make sense"

In his report, Ninine concluded "the usual reasons given by energy providers such as SaskPower for excess power bills just simply do not make sense."

"It is worth asking the very concrete question of how energy users in Southend, in particular, can be so out of whack with other energy users," his report said.

Ninine said the scope of his study was limited, and he did not physically inspect homes in Southend to see what could be causing such high electrical consumption.

"Do they have stuff running on all the time?" Ninine said during an interview with CBC. "Is the home design not conducive to minimizing heat loss in the wintertime and loss of cold air in the summertime?"

'You can't explain it away with heating problems': chief

The chief of the Peter Ballantyne Cree Naton said he was surprised to see electrical bills last spring in Southend were higher than those collected in December of 2018.

When you're working you really struggle to pay these bills.- Chief Peter Beatty, Peter Ballantyne Cree Nation

"It was quite alarming," said Chief Peter Beatty. "You can't explain it away with heating problems."

SaskPower bills are paid 'without question' for anyone receiving social assistance in Southend, Beatty said, but with 11,000 members, his band cannot help everyone.

"It's really, really tough," said Beatty. "When you're working you really struggle to pay these bills."

Beatty said earlier this month, he sent a letter outlining his concerns to Dustin Duncan, the provincial minister responsible for SaskPower.

He said Duncan has expressed interest in having a meeting about the power bills in the coming weeks.

"We need to find a credible explanation coming from SaskPower regarding this," Beatty said. "It raised some alarm bells."