Joint statement from Minister Laking and Minister Lang on ATCO Electric Yukon billing practices, systems and processes

Minister of Energy, Mines and Resources Ted Laking and Minister of Justice Laura Lang have issued the following joint statement:

“Yukoners are rightly frustrated with billing issues and irregularities experienced over the past year with ATCO’s billing system. When many households are already facing affordability pressures and rising costs because of a decade of failure to modernize the grid, these billing issues are unacceptable.

“We have been clear with ATCO: Yukoners, families and businesses deserve accurate bills, reliable service and confidence in the systems that support them.

“Systemic billing issues require thorough investigation and resolution. An investigation must determine the extent of these issues, identify their causes and ensure they never happen again.

“A formal investigation through the Yukon Utilities Board would come with costs that would ultimately be borne by ratepayers further increasing your electricity bills. Our government believes Yukon families and taxpayers should not be paying the costs of this inquiry.

“It would be unfair and unacceptable to ask customers to pay for problems they did not create and were negatively impacted by.

“For that reason, we have told ATCO we expect the company to retain an independent third-party review, at ATCO's sole expense, to conduct a comprehensive review of its billing practices, systems and processes.

“That review should determine the full extent of the issues, including a disclosure of the number of customers impacted. The review should identify what changes are required and provide recommendations to prevent similar problems from occurring in the future.

“Yukoners deserve and expect transparency, accountability and timely action. We are pleased that ATCO has responded positively to our request. We expect them to address the concerns of Yukoners and to implement any necessary corrective actions as quickly as possible.”