There is some temporary relief on utility bills for wildfire evacuees in northern Saskatchewan.
Premier Brad Wall announced Monday morning that until Sept. 1, 2015, SaskTel, SaskPower, and SaskEnergy will waive late payments and disconnection for those customers in mandatory evacuation zones. Residents, along with small and medium businesses, will also receive a future credit Wall said would be equivalent to about one month of service.
“We’ve asked our crown corporations for some flexibility for customers in the north in affected areas, and they’ve come through,” he expressed.
Wall said a similar agreement is being made for SaskHousing tenants.
In addition, any license plate or driver’s license that is due will not expire for fire evacuees because of non-payment or inability to renew.
Businesses will also not incur any penalties or late charges for not filing their PST returns on time.
“There’s a major business interruption happening here and also the utilities haven’t been able to be utilized, quite frankly, by customers because they’ve been out of their homes, so we’ll make these provisions available to them effective immediately,” Wall said.
kmartel@rawlco.com
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