City Council passed a motion to have Chestermere Utilities Incorporated (CUI), renamed to an Alberta numbered company following the decision to bring utility services in-house.
The ultimate end goal after paying off the debt the company has occurred is to change the name of CUI, which is a well-branded company that provides a specific type of service, said Chief Administrative Officer (CAO), Bernie Morton.
“Those services are now going to be provided by the city, and by way of contracted out services,” Morton said.
“Given that there has been a material change in the company, that has been explained by the staff, CUI, and legal counsel it makes good sense to actually change the name of CUI and simply revert it to a numbered Alberta company,” he said.
The City of Chestermere expects that CUI will no longer provide services by August, and will be removing the name from the company, and transitioning the naming on all CUI vehicles over to the city.
It’s a common misconception that changing a name requires a full-fledged, whole scale change of letterhead, Morton added. However, the utility billing will be spent out by the city, on city letterhead.
“The changing is because the operations of the company have changed to the point that anything more than a numbered company is not required,” Morton said.
There is no branding, and CUI as Chestermere previously knows it ceases to operate in the same way, as it is now fully controlled by a board.
Chestermere City Councillor Yvette Wagner said changing the company name is an important step in dissolving CUI for residents.
“The letters “CUI” bring anxiety to everybody in our city. It doesn’t need to be on everything anymore, it just needs to be that background company,” she said.
Keeping the numbered company will allow solely for the purpose of holding the debt separate and apart from the city’s debt, Morton said.
“Holding that debt separate from the city’s debt still allows the city to work within its debt limit, and to continue the required work that is needed to sustain a growing community and projects,” he said.
The end goal is to own the company, pay off the debt, dissolve the company when the debt is paid back and revert it to the city, Morton said.
Following Chestermere City’s Councils decision to bring utility services in-house CUI will not be allowed to incur any new debt in the future.
“It’s as close to full municipalization as you can get without transferring the debt onto the city’s books,” Morton said.
Along with not being able to incur any new debt, CUI will continue to operate until the debt has been paid.
While CUI will have one employee who will administer day-to-day services, while operations will be outsourced.
“This model no longer requires CUI to operate as the company it formally was and constitutes a material change to the company.
“CUI as a branded company ceases to have relevance,” said Chestermere City Councillor Michelle Young.
CUI was immediately discontinued and will now operate simply as a numbered company.
