Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Each co-op is responsible for their area. They set their own rates. They carry their own reserves. They have a limit. If somebody wants to build a new house and have gas to it, they have an amount that they pay for a connection. If the service is more than that, as I said, the go

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Well, 50 years ago the private companies of the day picked the small towns, the cities, the concentrated areas that were close to their pipelines. They served them. The areas that were uneconomical, they didn't serve. So when the co-ops were formed, the Government of Alberta gave

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  That's correct.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  The first co-op that I spoke of, south of Calgary, had a pipeline going through the area that actually exported gas to California. The local farmers wanted to know why, if we're exporting Alberta gas, they couldn't have access to it. Some of the people who actually worked for the

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Yes. As I mentioned, a year or two ago we got approval to do the wireless reading of the metres. Right now we're reading about 40,000 metres. Some of the co-ops have a hand-held device whereby they can drive down the road and the operator can push a button and read the metres,

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  We did receive one grant through the CCA to do a study on—

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Each co-op has its own administration. If they take on new customers, they have to submit an application to the government saying how many new customers they expect to install that year. The government then monitors it. At the end of the year, they have to submit their final numb

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Not very much, no.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  No, it's not through our gas co-op federation. We looked at the possibility and put it forward to our members. The members turned it down. Then a group of our members formed a private company called Corridor Communications Inc. They are putting that wireless broadband Internet in

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  They're still in the expansion stage. They have 147 300-foot towers up and they're going forward.

Special Committee on Cooperatives committee  Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Richards, and members of the committee. Thank you for allowing us to make a presentation today on behalf of the Federation of Alberta Gas Co-ops. We are excited to be here because we want to demonstrate for you what cooperatives are able to ach