ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING
As part of our gas co-operative’s ongoing cost-saving measures to sustain low utility rates for our membership, Foothills Natural Gas Co-op will be holding our Annual General Meeting through a Zoom virtual platform.
Meeting Details:
Date: March 26th, 2025
Time: 7:00 pm
Pre-registration is required to participate in the virtual meeting
Primary Purpose of meeting:
Review and approval of the 2024 audited financial statement.
Appointment of auditor
Appointment of directors
Any members wishing to participate in our 2025 Annual General Meeting can pre-register through our office via phone or email. Members will be required to provide our office with an email address for an invitation to be sent for the Zoom virtual meeting. Pre-registration will be open until the end of business hours on Friday, March 21st, 2025. Once members have pre-registered, Foothills will email out an Annual General Meeting information package and a Zoom meeting invitation to join the March 26th, 2025, meeting.
Foothills will be conducting a draw at the end of the meeting for three $100 donations to any qualified charity of a members’ choice so participation by members will automatically secure your membership participation in this charity draw. Foothills retains the right to approve the charity chosen by the member. A summary of the approved audited financial statement will be included in an upcoming monthly billing statement for review by members unable to attend. If you have any questions regarding AGM information, please contact our office.
CARBON TAX INCREASE APRIL 2025
Provincial natural gas utilities are required to charge Federal Carbon Tax as per the Greenhouse Gas Pollution Pricing Act. This carbon tax rate will increase from the 2024 rate of $4.10 per GJ to an anticipated rate of $4.99 per GJ effective April 1st, 2025. Our membership will also be required to pay an additional 5% GST on the carbon tax charge bringing the taxable portion of your monthly gas bill up to a predicted rate of $5.24 per GJ. The wholesale gas price that our membership will be charged for March 2025 has been set at $2.52 per GJ by Gas Alberta, our wholesale purchasing agent that performs market purchasing of natural gas on behalf of our membership.
To put this into perspective, our membership is paying over double the price of the commodity being purchased in taxes charged by Revenue Canada. These carbon tax rates are prescribed on an increasing scale and are scheduled to increase to approximately $6.07 per GJ (with GST) in April 2026. All the taxes charged under this Act are remitted directly to Revenue Canada.
PAPER STATEMENT FEE
Foothills Natural Gas Co-op Ltd. implemented a $1.50 paper statement fee for any members requiring a monthly hard copy invoice be mailed to their address effective May 1st, 2024. Foothills completed 1,995 hard-copy invoices sent out by Canada Post and 1,564 e-billing invoices sent directly to members via email addresses in February 2024. In January 2025, Foothills completed 1,306 hard-copy invoices mailed out through Canada Post and 2,244 in e-billing invoices sent out via e-mail addresses. In tracking the realized costs of both methods of invoicing, Foothills verified that the hard copy postal mailouts averaged an expense of $1.69 per member and the e-billing email address expense was $0.14 per member. This increase of an additional 680 members to an e-billing process has produced an additional cost savings of approximately $1,050 per month or about $12,500 annually. The cost-savings for the gas co-operative for 2024 in respect of all members on e-billing has been calculated at approximately $32,000 which has allowed Foothills to maintain our competitive utility rates for our collective membership.
The Board of Directors is confident that our membership will recognize the impartial parity that the gas co-op is striving towards in keeping our rate structures fair for all members. It is important also to acknowledge that out of 54 provincial gas co-operatives delivering rural natural gas, Foothills Natural Gas Co-op is currently ranked number 4 in maintaining the lowest utility rate structures on behalf of our membership. On January 13th, 2025, Canada Post increased the postal rate from $0.98 per envelope on a bulk purchase rate to $1.23 per envelope reflecting a 25% increase for Foothills Natural Gas Co-op. In respect of that postal rate increase, the Board of Directors is requesting that any member, who can make the switch to e-billing for delivery of their monthly invoice, consider the advantages of this option, not only on their own behalf, but also for the advantage of the entire membership at Foothills Natural Gas Co-op.
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