Whereas the Province of British Columbia and municipalities share common goals of: a reducing carbon emissions through electrification of buildings and transportation b improving energy affordability and reducing the incidence of poverty, and c enhancing local energy resilience and self-sufficiency in municipalities and Indigenous communities; And whereas the British Columbia Utilities Commission is currently governed by outdated legislation that limits its ability to guide the transformation of BCs energy system and its ability to direct utilities to realign their activities in line with the objectives stated above: Therefore be it resolved that the UBCM request the Province of British Columbia to amend and modernize the Utilities Commission Act, expanding the scope of the BCUCs mandate and giving it clear direction to consider environmental, equity, resilience, and reconciliation objectives in its decision-making.
Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation The role of the BCUC as an economic regulator is to ensure that customers have access to a safe, reliable energy service at a fair price, while allowing the utilities it regulates the opportunity to earn a fair return on their investments. In performing this role, it is required to consider British Columbias energy objectives outlined in section 2 of the Clean Energy Act, which include objectives related to reducing greenhouse gas emissions, fostering the development of First Nations and rural communities, and encouraging economic development. In some circumstances, it is also required to consider the public interest in its decision-making, which is a broad concept that can capture a variety of public policy objectives. The existing legislative and regulatory framework allows the Province to provide direction to the BCUC to inform the BCUCs decision making. A 2015 Independent Review of the BCUC confirmed that it is the provincial governments prerogative to set provincial energy policy, to define the BCUCs mandate, and to direct the BCUC on specific matters. For example, under the Clean Energy Act, the Province is empowered to prescribe undertakings for the purpose of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in BC, and the BCUC is required to allow public utilities carrying out a prescribed undertaking and where applicable, recover the costs from its ratepayers. Pursuant to this authority, the Province has put in place the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Clean Energy Regulation, which includes prescribed undertakings designed to promote electrification including in the transportation sector. The Province also has the ability under section 3 of the Utilities Commission Act to direct the BCUC with respect to the exercise of its powers and performance of its duties. The Province recently used this power to ensure the temporary continuation of BC Hydros Customer Crisis Fund, which provides grants to customers who are unable to pay their BC Hydro bills because of a temporary financial crisis. Mandatory Reliability Standards MRS help ensure the reliability and security of the bulk power system in North America. In 2009, the BC government amended the Utilities Commission Act by adding Section 125.2 to establish the MRS Regulation, including giving the BCUC exclusive jurisdiction to determine whether a reliability standard is in the public interest and should be adopted in BC.