Red Deer city council approves motion to commence next steps to establish MCC

Red Deer city council unanimously approved a motion for administration to begin the next steps in establishing a municipally controlled Corporation (MCC), including appointing interim directors and adopting the Unanimous Shareholders Agreement (USA) and Articles of Incorporation.

This comes after council decided in June 2025 to transition the city’s electric utility to an MCC. At the time, it was described as a “generational decision” among councillors and administration involved.

When council approved the motion last year, the city stated the transition to an MCC from the current electric utility was expected to be fully set up by 2028.

Since then, administration has been working through the requirements set out in Alberta’s Municipal Government Act and Business Corporations Act to establish the MCC.

Most importantly, even though the MCC is now established, it does not yet have assets, employees, budget, or operational responsibilities. The electric utility will continue to operate as a department of the city as regulatory approvals are completed.

An MCC, according to the city, allows the utility to remain publicly owned and operate as a business at arm’s length with more flexibility and independence.

Meanwhile, a USA is a rulebook that defines how the corporation will operate and how authority is shared between the board and shareholders.

Councillor Dianne Wyntjes said even though it’s taken considerable time, it’s important to know that this process is ongoing work.

“For me, it’s the mammoth task of learning about the important electrical utility assets. We don’t often realize how important they are until our power goes off and the importance of [dependable power] and the future of a growing city,” she said.

“Perhaps our time on this today, the public may say, was very short; it’s important to recognize that we have learned from other cities that have MCC’s. Their learnings and experiences have been shared, which have brought us to this point today.”

Councillor Kraymer Barnstable said he looks forward to the work continuing and that now the work moves forward to AUC.

“We need to see how long that takes, and I know we’ve done great work up to this point… We are coming close to putting this item into a better place, a better understanding, and having our utilities move forward in the right way,” Barnstable said.

It was an exciting day for the community, Barnstable added, and hopes it works out for the city and residents.

Mayor Cindy Jefferies said one thing she reminded herself of during the process was that, right from day one, the infrastructure and assets of the electric utility were bought and paid for by the citizens.

“Anything we own in this space, no matter how entangled it’s been within the organization, was bought by taxpayers and ratepayers… When I go back to the MCC decision, we had a lot of the public come forward and talk about the importance of maintaining that asset as a public entity, and if they helped buy and pay for it, they should also be able to benefit from the asset ownership itself.”

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Read more: Red Deer council approves electric utility transition to an MCC

Read more: Red Deer council continues to move forward with electric utility transition to MCC