Summerside wants Maritime Electric customers

Summerside's city council wants the province to help with its efforts to move 600 local Maritime Electric customers tothe city's electric utility.

The households were not changed over to Summerside's utility when amalgamation took place in the mid-1990s.

The city has triedon its own beforeto convince Maritime Electric to give up the customers, but with no success.

Deputy Mayor Bruce MacDougall says he's hearing plenty of concerns about it as he goes door to door campaigning for the municipal election.

"The residents in the St. Eleanors areaeven though they're in city boundaries, they're still serviced by Maritime Electric," he said. "And the number one issue is, whenever they open the doors, 'When are you going to get us on to city power?'"

The council passed a unanimous resolution calling on the province to set up a process that wouldbring the customersunder the Summerside utility.

Rates at the Summerside utility and Maritime Electric are the same.