City and Penticton Lakeside Resort come to terms over hydro bill

PENTICTON – A dispute over money owed to the city for electricity as a result of a malfunctioning hydro meter at the Penticton Lakeside Resort has been settled.

City staff discovered one of the resort’s meters was not reporting properly in 2013, but the meter wasn’t repaired until 2015, Penticton Mayor Andrew Jakubeit says.

Jakubeit says Weights and Measures Canada did an assessment to get an estimate on what the meter should have reported.

The city claimed underpayment of the resort’s hydro bill by an amount more than $632,000 between the period of 2009 to 2015.

Jakubeit says the settlement reached with the resort involves a confidentiality clause but the settlement was 'a good resolution for all involved'.

“Although we filed a notice of claim with the courts, we never served the Lakeside with papers to formally start the procedure,” Jakubeit says, adding both parties got together after the notice was initiated in order to find a solution.

“I think when both parties can sit in a room together and find a solution it shows the value and importance of having a good relationship,” Jakubeit says. “A good relationship is when you can have difference of opinions and still find common ground.” 

Jakubeit says the city has since implemented technology to flag variances or anomalies with utility billings. He says the city also has a manual process to monitor high volume accounts, and investigate anomalies in billings when comparisons are made against historical data.

Phone calls and emails to Penticton Lakeside Resort General Manager David Prystay were not returned in time for publication.

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