All Saskpower customers, including those in the Lloydminster area, will be seeing a rebate on their power bills, starting Tuesday.
In the Saskatchewan Government’s Speech from the Throne on November 30th, the province announced that people would be getting a 10 per cent rebate, which came into effect on December 1st and will run all the way into the of November 2021.
The rebate, which is called the Saskatchewan Economic Recovery Rebate, seeks to “provide relief to everyone in the province to help drive Saskatchewan’s recovery in 2021,” according to Primer Scott Moe.
The rebate will be applied to consumer’s bills under the “electrical charges” section of customers’ bills, which is made up of the basic monthly charge, energy charge and demand charge. It isn’t applied to GST, PST, municipal surcharges, the Federal Carbon Tax or fees like connection or late payments.
The province also says the rebate will only be applied to all power used after the December 1st date, and so some bills factoring being delivered now may not see the full rebate benefit as it charges for power used in part of November. They say people should expect to see the full benefit on their January power bill.
Minister Responsible for SaskPower Don Morgan also notes that this should help both consumers and businesses with their financial recovery post-COVID-19 pandemic.
The government estimates the one-year program will cost $262 million, which will be fully funded through the General Revenue Fund.