Council updated on CUI review

Chestermere City Council was given an update on the review of Chestermere Utilities Incorporated’s (CUI) mandate and regulatory rate setting process at the council meeting Sept. 19.
“It was good to see in plain black and white, the advantages, current and future, of continuing with CUI vs bringing the company back in-house as a department,” said Mayor Patricia Matthews in an e-mailed statement.
The review is being done by an independent third party contractor, Stack’d Consulting.
The review of the CUI mandate and rate setting process was undertaken after residents expressed concerns.
“Residents asked us to consider whether CUI should remain a stand-alone entity or fold back into the City,” said Matthews.
Based upon the feedback of residents, the city asked Stack’d to include a review of the benefits of leaving the CUI as a separate legal entity vs. the city taking it over.
Stack’d determined that the CUI provides more value in three areas than it would as a city department.
Firstly, the CUI has the potential for superior financial performance in the mid to long term. This comes from its corporate structure and separation from the city.
This separation from the city also allows the CUI to take on long term debts commonly associated with utilities.
Finally, leaving the CUI as a separate entity will save the Chestermere the risks and costs of reintegrating it as a city department.
Matthews said that there were no surprises for council in the report.
“Stack’d consulting has extensive organizational governance expertise, specifically working with municipal utilities, and their recommendation was that keeping CUI as a corporation was the superior choice,”
Matthews said that Stack’d has been doing a thorough job.
“They answered questions from Council at our meeting…in a forthright and educated manner which provided us with further clarity on governance,” she said.
Matthews said that Stack’d has been meeting deadlines as they occur.
“They have been on-time with their deliverables to this point and we’re anxious to continue moving forward on the mandate and regulatory review piece,” said Matthews.
They have been collecting data from both industry and stakeholders.
The next steps in the review process is for Stack’d to develop and confirm the CUI mandate as well as complete the regulatory rate-setting process before submitting the final report to council at the beginning of November.
“We expect they will meet their deadline of a full report to Council,” she said.