April 1st marks the start of digging season. To avoid costly repairs or possible injuries please request a locate through the Utility Safety Partners (formally Alberta One Call) website before you do any ground disturbance. It’s free!
To submit a locate request please click on the image below or call 1-800-242-3447.
The federal carbon pollution pricing system was implemented in Alberta on January 1, 2020. A charge on fossil fuels is part of the Canadian government’s climate change action plan to help lower carbon emissions. The fuel charge rates reflect a carbon pollution price of $65 per tonne of carbon dioxide and will continue to rise by $15 per tonne annually to reach $170 per tonne in 2030. You will notice a line item on your gas bill to reflect the rate per GJ of natural gas consumed. The amount collected is remitted to the Federal Government monthly by your utility company.
Effective Date Federal Fuel Charge per GJ
January 1, 2020 $1.05/GJ
April 1, 2020 $1.58GJ
April 1, 2021 $2.10/GJ
April 1, 2022 $2.63/GJ
April 1, 2023 $3.33/GJ < We are here
Climate Action Incentive payments
To help pay for the charge, Albertan’s over the age of 19 will automatically receive incentive payments four times per year on the 15th (Jan, Apr, Jul, Oct) by direct deposit or cheque, whatever you are signed up for on the CRA website. If you have a spouse or common-law partner, only one of you can get the credit for the family. The credit will be paid to the spouse or common-law partner whose tax return was assessed first. No matter which one of you receives the credit, the amount will be the same. Please see below for an example of how much your family could receive.
*A rural family of four could get up to $1,698 ($424 quarterly).
The price of natural gas is at a 14-year high and is expected to continue rising into the winter months. There are many global factors contributing to these high prices: low inventory levels in storage, high demand, hot weather, worker shortages, and the war in Ukraine. The natural gas commodity is marketed on trading platforms located across North America so prices are completely out of our control. Our supplier, Gas Alberta, buys natural gas at the lowest possible spot price every month and we sell that natural gas to our customers at the same price it was purchased with no markup. For more information please visit: Federation of Alberta Gas Co-Ops (fedgas.com).
Licensed competitive natural gas retailers, like the ones that service the towns and cities in Alberta, offer fixed rates. The average fixed rate right now is $4.99/GJ. Since Crossroads Gas is a not-for-profit co-operative and the gas costs come from Gas Alberta on a monthly basis, we can’t lock in rates.
To give you an idea of how your gas bill compares to a fixed rate retailer, we did an analysis. Below are real gas bills for the month of May and June 2022 with the same gas usage. Even though the Crossroads gas rate is nearly double the fixed rate, the Crossroads Gas bill is lower.
To even out your gas bills throughout the year and avoid spikes in the winter, we encourage you to sign up for Budget Billing. Call the office for more information.