Discovered during a recent home renovation project, an old notice from the city offers insight into how much the cost of electricity has increased in the last 60 years.
Mitchel Steinwedel found the items recently between the rafters in the attic after a chimney was removed from their 91-year-old house.
After finding them, he brought them downstairs to his girlfriend, Jessica Humes.
“We found some old Soo Falls Brewery bottles, we found two of them actually. There is also an old cameo ring,” said Steinwedel.
But it was a piece of paper, dated 1959, that really caught the couple’s attention.
“I didn’t know what it was. It was just a piece of paper and when I opened it up I was like, ‘What is this?’” said Steinwedel.
The notice, issued by the city of Sault Ste. Marie, outlines the domestic electricity rates at the time.
In the 1959 notice, the first 60 kilowatt hours (kWh) used per month were supplied at a cost of $0.02 per kWh (in actual 1959 dollars), with each kWh used after that closing just a penny.
In comparison, current PUC rates for off-peak hours are charged at almost $0.09 per kWh, while on-peak hours are billed at $0.18 per kWh.
Currently, only about 60 percent of a PUC electricity bill goes toward actual energy costs, the remaining 40 percent is split up between distribution, transmission, debt retirement, etc.
Those additional costs, including taxes, appear to be absent from the 1959 notice.
The PUC uses 800 kWh as an example of an average residential bill in the year 2014, with a total cost of $113.34, including taxes.
Using the notice as a guide, the same 800 kWh would have cost a user $8.60 before taxes in 1959.
What surprised Steinwedel is the 1959 policy on paying your bill early.
“There’s a 10-percent discount if you pay your bill by a certain date. I think that is awesome,” said Steinwedel.
Humes agrees.
“I found it interesting how they would offer discounts back then compared to now,” she said.
Since posting the items on Facebook, the couple has been asked about their plans for the items.
“We have had a couple of people contact Jess to see if we would sell the ring to them. We’re kind of not interested in that,” said Steinwedel.
There has also been interest in the bottles, Steinwedel said, but the couple plan to put them on display in the house.
As for the notice, which shows just how much electricity rates have increased over the years?
“I was actually recommended to take a picture and send it to (Ontario Premier) Kathleen Wynne,” said Humes.
