Town of Raymond discuss Fortis Streetlight Investment Refund

Posted on September 11, 2025 by admin

By Heather Cameron
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

During the Town of Raymond Council Meeting on August 5, Council discussed the topic of the Fortis Streetlight Investment Refund.

“A couple of years ago, the Alberta Utilities Commission made a change in the regulation that changed the way reimbursements were returned to developers for investments in streetlights through the Fortis Network,” said Chief Administrative Officer Kurtis Pratt. “Historically, it would just go to the developer, whether the Town was the developer or there was a private developer.”

A change made a couple of years ago, however, Pratt explained, automatically defaulted all of the refund to come back to the municipality. Pratt, however, also stated that a request recently came forward about reallocating said funds from the municipality back to the developer.

“It’s basically a rebate on what each developer spends to put in streetlights,” said Pratt.

Pratt stated to Council that they could make a motion to reallocate the funds from the municipality to the developer or leave things as is. 

“Administratively, it’s not a lot of money, but it is something you could do as a gesture to thank the developers for going through the effort of investing in the community,” said Pratt.

Council discussed the idea briefly, including how streetlights cost approximately 6,000 to $8,000 per streetlight depending on the streetlight and the refund would be approximately $1,500. Mayor Depew also mentioned that the suggestion of the reimbursement being returned to the developer was discussed at Committee, where it was supported.

A motion was ultimately made that the reimbursement from investments in streetlights go back to the developer and not to the Town. The motion was carried.