Weyburn and area residents were surprised to learn recently that SaskPower was going to shut down the bill payments office in Weyburn as of Aug. 31, along with five other locations in the province.With an alarm raised by a pamphlet distribution by local union members, this move by SaskPower sounded like it would be a detrimental one for the city, and was a step along the lines of dismantling the Crown corporations.When some of the details of what is happening were made clearer, the closure actually sounds worse than it is, and the culprit may be identified more accurately as the computer rather than the government.What is happening is that most people have been taking advantage of other, more convenient ways of paying their bills, such as via their financial institutions, by pre-arranged withdrawals, or even by Internet banking.The extent of these other forms of bill-paying has reached the point that less than 10 per cent of SaskPower's customers in the Weyburn area still come in to the office to pay their bill.The closure then is of the bill-paying office only; the technicians and others who work in the Weyburn office are not affected and will still be on the job to take care of things, such as when there are power outages, or power connections need to be turned off or on at a given property.In addition, no jobs were lost. Some positions were eliminated when people retired and were replaced with temporary part-time workers, while others were transferred to other positions with SaskPower in the office.For those customers who do still come in to the office to pay, now they can do so at their financial institution, or by mailing in a cheque.Is Weyburn poorer for this loss? At first, it sounded like this was the case, but really the cut isn't that bad, and most customers will never know the difference as they continue to use electronic means to make their payments. This move should be considered more about efficiency than anything else.
