A new report says when the province deregulated electricity generation in 2001, it forced Albertans to pay billions more for their energy.

The Alberta Federation of Labor (AFL) says its report, called Power in the public interest“exposes the flaws of the current system.”

“The shift to deregulated electricity generation was an ideological leap of faith,” said AFL president Gil McGowan.

“Returning to a regulated system is the opposite of that: it’s a return to the tried, tested and true.”

In its report, the AFL said Albertans are currently paying “the highest consumer electricity prices in the country.”

“Since the province liberalized power generation in 2001, Alberta’s electricity consumer price index has increased an average of 1.8 per cent per year more than Canada as a whole, or twice the difference before deregulation,” the AFL said.

That’s $24 billion more for electricity in Alberta than in other Canadian provinces.

The AFL says electricity also “must be treated differently” as a commodity.

“Regulated markets do not allow companies to exercise their market power at the expense of consumers, as was the case with price increases in Alberta in 2021-2023 that were facilitated by Alberta’s exclusive energy market,” the group said.

McGowan says the provincial government’s recent efforts to help have resulted in lower prices, but says there is “a lot more volatility” in Alberta.

“We used to be regulated, we had predictable prices and they were lower,” McGowan said.

“The law that the government has introduced has kept the electricity market deregulated, so prices are low now, but they will probably go up again.”

He says Alberta needs to re-regulate power generation to end price gouging and ensure reliability.

AFL also suggests the creation of a Crown corporation, Alberta Power, to restore control over the province’s electricity system and take it away from a small group of private companies that currently own 54 per cent of the province’s power generation. .

“It’s not just about lower bills, it’s about creating good jobs, ensuring a stable grid and accelerating our transition to clean energy. As workers and as citizens, we have the right to demand better,” he said.