Are MLAs Listening?
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| Power Pool Prices spiked this week. Who knows why? Should our MLAs be concerned? |
By: Nick Clark
Are MLAs Listening?
Members of the Legislative Assembly (MLAs) are elected by Albertans to make the laws we live by in this great province. According to Elections Alberta, an MLAs responsibility is to “represent the people’s needs and wants in government and to work with other MLAs to meet as many needs as possible to make everyone’s lives better.”
Additionally, Elections Alberta explains that “in the assembly chamber, MLAs work with other members to introduce bills and create laws. But, that is only a small part of what they do. MLAs spend a majority of their time in the community, out of the sight of the cameras and reporters. Here, they work with you, to listen to your questions, ideas, and opinions.”
I will highlight that last part again. To work with us, to listen to our questions, ideas, and opinions. Are MLAs actually listening to the people? Do they open the letters sent to them, or do our questions, ideas and opinions remain unopened in an e-mail account or simply discarded?
Today, with electronic mail systems, it is possible to track if what you sent was actually opened. The results can be interesting.
As you know, we are typical small business owners in Alberta. My business partner and I have invested our own money into a dream of building a company we can be proud of. And we have. In fact, we are proud to be celebrating 40 years in the energy retailing business.
Over the last couple of years, I have been quite vocal about the changes we have seen in Alberta’s electricity industry and I will continue to do so as the government forges ahead with even more proposed changes. During this time, I have sent a number of letters to our MLAs to hopefully shed some light on the issues facing our industry and how new policies may affect not only our business, but consumers in the province.
We have been monitoring who actually opens the mail we send. Correspondence unopened is likely just sent to the garbage bin or deemed to be unsolicited junk or spam.
About two weeks ago we sent an open letter to our MLA with copies to all others. The letter touched on issues such as:
Click here to see who opened the letter and who chose not to.
The electricity industry is going through dramatic changes. The government is projecting that consumer prices will double in the not so distant future, and the stability of our economy will be shaken with higher energy prices and a drop in consumer confidence.
As you can see in the image at the top of this blog, Power Pool Prices spiked to $1,000/MWh this week. Anyone on time of use metering had to pay over $1/kWh, up from the monthly average of 3 cents/kWh. Do our politicians know why? Do they care? Ask your MLA.
All of our political leaders should be on top of these issues and should welcome any additional information that could help them “make everyone’s lives better”. So why does mail on the topic end up in the junk mail category?
Additionally, Elections Alberta explains that “in the assembly chamber, MLAs work with other members to introduce bills and create laws. But, that is only a small part of what they do. MLAs spend a majority of their time in the community, out of the sight of the cameras and reporters. Here, they work with you, to listen to your questions, ideas, and opinions.”
I will highlight that last part again. To work with us, to listen to our questions, ideas, and opinions. Are MLAs actually listening to the people? Do they open the letters sent to them, or do our questions, ideas and opinions remain unopened in an e-mail account or simply discarded?
Today, with electronic mail systems, it is possible to track if what you sent was actually opened. The results can be interesting.
As you know, we are typical small business owners in Alberta. My business partner and I have invested our own money into a dream of building a company we can be proud of. And we have. In fact, we are proud to be celebrating 40 years in the energy retailing business.
Over the last couple of years, I have been quite vocal about the changes we have seen in Alberta’s electricity industry and I will continue to do so as the government forges ahead with even more proposed changes. During this time, I have sent a number of letters to our MLAs to hopefully shed some light on the issues facing our industry and how new policies may affect not only our business, but consumers in the province.
We have been monitoring who actually opens the mail we send. Correspondence unopened is likely just sent to the garbage bin or deemed to be unsolicited junk or spam.
About two weeks ago we sent an open letter to our MLA with copies to all others. The letter touched on issues such as:
- Greening the grid
- The Carbon Levy
- Investor confidence in Alberta
- Distribution and transmission fees
- Price cap on electricity
- Change to a capacity market
Click here to see who opened the letter and who chose not to.
The electricity industry is going through dramatic changes. The government is projecting that consumer prices will double in the not so distant future, and the stability of our economy will be shaken with higher energy prices and a drop in consumer confidence.
As you can see in the image at the top of this blog, Power Pool Prices spiked to $1,000/MWh this week. Anyone on time of use metering had to pay over $1/kWh, up from the monthly average of 3 cents/kWh. Do our politicians know why? Do they care? Ask your MLA.
All of our political leaders should be on top of these issues and should welcome any additional information that could help them “make everyone’s lives better”. So why does mail on the topic end up in the junk mail category?