Saskatchewan residents will get to enjoy lower natural gas bills during the winter months as the Crown corporation implemented the lowest rates in over 15 years last week. SaskEnergy announced that they are reducing their rates from $3.65/Gigajoule (GJ) to $2.95/Gigajoule (GJ) effective November 1, 2018.

The $0.70 decrease equals the lowest rate that has been offered to customers since 1999, however if the federally imposed carbon tax is implemented, the rate reduction will likely be temporary. Although a future rate spike is looming due to carbon tax talks, SaskEnergy has applied to the Saskatchewan Rate Review Panel to reduce rates further than recently announced.

If approved, customers could see a rate of $2.65/GJ as soon as April 1, 2019 making it $1.00/GJ less than the rates in October. However, the pendulum would swing equally in the opposite direction if the carbon tax is put through. The federal carbon tax which would increase the natural gas bill for every home, farm and business by $1/GJ, an increase that residents and business owners would be responsible for effective April 1, 2019.

SaskEnergy’s application also included a delivery service rate increase of 3.7 per cent to fun safety and system integrity programs, an increase that may be amended dependant on the analysis of the the impact of the carbon tax.

In the interim, residents are expected to save $80/year with the rate reduction, or approximately $6.67/month.