Members gather for AGM!

CAREA members gathered together on March 27, in Innisfail, for the association's Annual General Meeting.

Besides electing a new Board of Directors and passing new bylaws, members also saw staff and board members receive recognition for dedicated service, applauded the two scholarship recipients and dined on roast beef. Members were also able to match their tickets to a door prize before heading home.

The Member Information Session took place on March 29, in Onoway, for all members that couldn't attend the Innisfail meeting. The MIS is for information purposes only, however, and no voting took place.

CAREA staff get a member signed in.

Board member John Hull, pictured in the centre, talks with Khalid Mehmood, a CAREA employee, and a member.

Tyson Hildebrandt, right, receives his scholarship.

CAREA's General Manager, Pat Bourne, left, introduces staff members that have been with the association for five years - Khalid Mehmood, Patricia Smith and Chelsey Schatschneider.

Members voting.

Members check tickets on the door prize selection, to see which one they get to take home.

CAREA's new Board of Directors.

CAREA and other Alberta REAs issue joint press release

Listed below is the recent press release three of Alberta's REAs sent out to newspapers and radio stations across the province:

Submitted by:
Central Alberta Rural Electrification Association
Lakeland Rural Electrification Association
South Alta Rural Electrification Association

Rural Electrification Associations are uniquely Albertan – they do not exist elsewhere in Canada but they were, and remain today, the backbone and driving force that delivers electricity to thousands of rural Albertans, farmers and business owners alike. However, the REAs continued existence is threatened.

The rules in Alberta are working against the REAs because of the increased investment levels and the profit-maximizing investment of the multinational utilities. Government needs to thoroughly review the current legislation and revise the recent changes in legislation that have allowed this to happen.
When multinational utility companies in Alberta apply for rate increases, they receive a guaranteed rate of return on their investment – currently in excess of 9% per year. They earn this rate of return on the amount the Alberta Utilities Commission says they are deemed to invest in their rate base. The guaranteed rate of return goes to the stockholders of the multinational utility companies.

The multinational utility companies are allowed, through government legislation, to “invest” in their distribution system. They heavily subsidize the costs of new and other construction through this “investment.” In other words, for new construction, the consumer requiring the work pays little if anything; and the rest of the utility customers pay for the new consumer. All multinational utility company customers pay for this investment through rates and all profits, including the rate of return, go to stockholders and those profits do not necessarily stay in Alberta. Their customers also pay for a rate of return to the stockholders on top of the approved costs of construction.

These multinational utility companies have the added advantage of benefiting from their own defined, protected service areas under current legislation, where they operate as a monopoly providing an essential service to consumers without a choice. Correspondingly, the ability of the multinational utility companies to raise their investment levels in the past couple of years now effectively allows them to also utilize these levels to purchase REAs and rewards them for doing so.

How is it rewarding? The multinational utility passes the costs for the purchase of the REAs onto their Alberta customers as an “investment,” while their stockholders reap the rewards by way of increased stock value and the additional guaranteed profits. This business practice is vehemently opposed by REAs, who believe legislation created this unintended consequence for Albertans. In other words, the multinational is eliminating their competition without risk to stockholders and making an additional profit while spending their Alberta customers’ money – not their own money! What other environment do you know of where a company, that has a monopoly within a defined, protected service area, is permitted to systematically buy out the competition in other areas without risk to stockholders, include the cost of those buy-outs in their approved customer rates and then receive a guaranteed return on the investment expense to buy out their competition?

CAREA Cares!

Top photo: Tim George, CAREA lineman, and Terry Scheiris, Onoway Area Manager, stand with Ruth McIntyre, Development Manager for Big Brothers and Big Sisters Edmonton and Area Branch, as well as the rest of the staff for the Edmonton office.

Bottom photo: Christine Jasper, CAREA’s Finance Co-ordinator, stands with representatives from Big Brothers and Big Sisters Innisfail (not in order) Brenda Joyce, Director, Adele McKechnie, Chairperson, and Linda Doering, Program Assistant.

Tim, Terry and Christine represented the CAREA Cares committee, which donated $3,750 to each Big Brothers and Big Sisters organization, CAREA’s charity of choice for the next three years.

The total $7,500 donation was raised through the CAREA Cares golf tournament, as well as office fundraisers such as cookbook, pop and candy sales and 50/50 draws.

Taking on-the-job experience into the classroom

On Thursday, Dec. 8, representatives from CAREA spent the day with students from the Olds College Utility Aboriculture program.

Carson Milko, Utility Tree Worker, Joe Fetchko, Utility Tree Trimmer, Grant Hoff, Safety Manager, and Michaela Johnstone, Communications Co-ordinator, arrived at the college early that Thursday and spent the morning speaking to the students about electricity and how it works, transmission, generation, single and three phase electricity, on-the-job hazards and then all about vegetation management and the tools Carson and Joe use in their day-to-day working environment. Grant also touched on safe limits of approach when it comes to utility lines.

After lunch, the CAREA crew and the Olds College students headed to a farm near Eagle Hill for a demonstration – using the tools Carson and Joe talked about in class, the chipper and boom truck and then Carson lowered a branch onto a de-energized line and showed the class the safest way to fix this issue.

Laurie Newsham, the program’s instructor, had a lot of great things to say about the day: “I just wanted to say thank you very much to each of you for your great work in presenting to my Utility Arboriculture students. It was a really good day for learning. You folks did a fantastic job of not only representing CAREA but of showing a whole other world of arboriculture these students have only read about or heard me talk about. You put “life and breath” into the “bones” we have been talking about in class for several weeks. Thanks for making that happen.”

Grant, pictured behind the desk at the front, and Carson, pictured to the left, talk about the care and use of tools.

CAREA kids get into the Christmas spirit

The children of CAREA employees were treated to their own Christmas party on Dec. 4, from noon to 3 p.m. at Carnival Cinema in Red Deer.

Everyone loved their gifts and had a wonderful time!

CAREA scores well on annual survey

CAREA sends out a survey to its members each year, to gauge how the association is doing, where we can improve and things we are doing right.

Listed below are the results for 2011:

CAREA’s goal is to provide its members with quality service in a timely and efficient manner. In our October newsletter, we asked members to respond to a series of questions to help us find out how we are doing. We received 357 responses from the Innisfail Area and 128 responses from the Onoway Area for a total or 485 responses, or 5.8 per cent of our total membership. The following is the feedback provided by those members that responded and had experience with CAREA’s services and communications.

Inquiries

1) 93 per cent for Innisfail and 97 per cent for Onoway were satisfied with the response they received when calling our office.

a) 98 per cent for Innisfail and 99 per cent for Onoway were treated courteously by all staff.

b) 98 per cent for Innisfail and 98 per cent for Onoway were responded to in a timely manner.

Power Outages

1) 90 per cent for Innisfail and 88 per cent for Onoway were satisfied with the response time if they have experienced a power outage.

2) 92 per cent for Innisfail and 91 per cent for Onoway were satisfied with our after-hours answering service if they have experienced a power outage after regular business hours.

Field Personnel

1) 95 per cent for Innisfail and 99 per cent for Onoway were satisfied with how they were treated the last time they had contact with our field personnel on their property.

Communications

1) 75 per cent for Innisfail and 88 per cent for Onoway were satisfied with the message provided in any recent CAREA radio ad that they have heard.

2) 79 per cent for Innisfail and 83 per cent for Onoway were satisfied with the message provided in any recent CAREA newspaper ad that they have read.

3) 89 per cent for Innisfail and 91 per cent for Onoway were satisfied with the information contained in our newsletter.

4) 72 per cent for Innisfail and 93 per cent for Onoway were satisfied with the information contained on our website.

Your comments are appreciated and members who have experienced problems or have concerns will be contacted to address their issues.

Congratulations to the winners of the member survey draws. Alex Taylor received a $250 Home Depot gift card and the following individuals will receive a $75 power bill credit: Ross and Bernadina French, Gerald and Shelley Ingeveld, Susan Parcels, Evelyn Quartly, John Richter and Norma Stobbe.

REAs build relationships at AAMD&Cs convention

On Monday, Nov. 21, Central Alberta REA, along with South Alta REA and North Parkland Power REA, hosted many councillors in a hospitality suite during the Alberta Association of Municipal Districts and Counties annual convention.

There were finger foods to be enjoyed and a putting game to try, and councillors were encouraged to ask questions and learn all they could about Rural Electrification Associations and their role in Alberta's electricity industry.

Over 100 people came through the doors of the REA hospitality suite that night.

Board members and the General Managers of the three participating REAs were very happy to speak to all of the attendees and appreciate the efforts of everyone that stopped by. They hope to see everyone again next year!