Welcome to Meota Gas Cooperative Association Ltd.

Provincial Regulations require that each meter set must be inspected at least once annually.  To ensure the safety of the gas system, we require 24 hour access to all meter sets and URW's.

Meota Gas Cooperative Association Ltd. (Meota) was established in 1962 and is the first natural gas cooperative formed in Alberta.

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Together with other Alberta Natural gas co-ops, we are one the world's largest rural gas distribution systems.

Our goal is to deliver natural gas to our members and customers in the most safe and reliable manner.

The Board of Directors of Meota would like to welcome you to our web site. Please have a look around.  If you can’t find what you’re looking for please contact us.

Meota Gas Cooperative Association Ltd. offers many services in our service area, from setting up gas service to new homes, maintaining and upgrading existing gas accounts, installing secondary gas services to managing safety issues.

403-931-2161

MEOTA NEWS – February 2021

NEW DIRECTIONS

For the past several years, it has become very obvious that the future operations of Meota as a natural gas co-operative are going to be increasingly dictated by significantly more stringent rules and regulations and operational standards. These are positive in nature, significantly increasing the requirements for overall operational safety, employee safety, reliability of service and diligent inspection and monitoring of your gas distribution system.

Your Board of Directors and management have responded to these increasing demands, ever cognizant of the fact that increased regulation leads to increased operating costs and future higher gas delivery charges to you, our customers. This could have risked our competitive advantage as measured against ATCO, a benchmark for our success year after year. Our response has been to streamline our operations, dramatically improve operating efficiencies and staff deployment with the clear goal of achieving “doing more with less”. We are now into the third year of this operational transition.

Luc LeBlanc assumed the role of General Manager in January 2019 and was instrumental in effecting a lot of the changes that are now in place. Luc retired in January 2021 and the Board wishes to publicly acknowledge our thanks and our gratitude to him for his drive and perseverance to bring about very significant organizational changes, dramatically improved efficiencies in our field operations and cost savings throughout our organization. Luc has returned to running his own construction business.

More specifically, Meota has put particular emphasis on process improvements in the areas of safety, quality, security, digital records integrity, cost containment, competitive purchasing protocols, intra-Coop cooperation and mutual aid arrangements, regulatory compliance, training, communication systems, environmental awareness and compliance, organizational effectiveness and operational efficiency. Meota has been able to achieve these improvements while navigating uncharted challenges of a pandemic and as well as maintaining the cost advantage provided to its customer base compared to other gas distribution providers.

To effect these changes, we have:

1. Significantly increased our governance standards and educational requirements at the Board level. We now require that anyone elected to the Board take formal governance training within the first two years of their election.

1. To ensure financial viability for your co-op in the longer term, we implemented our Long Range Capital Plan to identify major expenditure items we could reasonably foresee over a rolling forward 20-year time frame updated annually. The objective was to create a dedicated reserve fund, sufficiently in advance to guard against rate shocks in future years when major expenditure items would likely occur. The importance of this approach is apparent today. Meota will likely have to move at least two of its RMO stations that are in or close to the TC pipeline rights-of way plus some of our distribution lines due to TC’ Energy’s proposed addition of a third large diameter natural gas pipeline. Cost allocation with TC Energy is under negotiation currently. Meota is the only rural co-op that has adopted this forward planning and financial integrity approach.

1. We have now implemented an improved organizational structure that allows us to operate effectively and efficiently with reduced staffing levels and correspondingly lower costs of operation, while providing better and more reliable service for our customers.

1. As part of this reorganization, we have redefined the responsibilities of the General Manager and created a new position of Assistant General Manager (essentially a “Second-in-Command” position) that has now replaced the former mid-level positions of Office Administrator and Operations Manager.

This new structure ensures that we have robust 24-hour, 365 day-a-year senior management coverage and direction for our business that must always be on-line and capable of reliably delivering natural gas to you each and every hour of the year.

NEW FACES

Effective in early January 2021, John Martin was appointed as your new General Manager. Many of you will have already met John as he has been Meota’s face to the community on the service side since August 2017. Most recently, John was our Operations Manager. As an experienced hand with in-depth knowledge of all of our field operations and compliance requirements, John’s promotion to General Manager has been seamless. John was directly involved in developing and implementing our organizational changes and is particularly well suited to ensure its future success.

John came to Meota after several years in field and management roles at St Anne Gas Co-op Ltd. located northwest of Edmonton. He is a Gas Utility Operator and Gas Fitter by training and obtained his Project Management Certification through MacEwan University. He sits on the Alberta Government’s Occupational Committee for the Gas Utility Operator training program since 2012.  His work ethic, dedication and ability to handle complex operational, reporting, compliance and staffing issues made him a logical choice for promotion to the role of General Manager.

We are also pleased to announce the appointment of Ms. Simone Richter to the new position of Assistant General Manager effective February 22, 2021. Most recently, Simone was the General Manager of the Cochrane Lakes Gas Co-op Ltd. based in Cochrane. Her in-depth knowledge of gas co-operatives, accounting administration and staff operational management make her a valuable addition to Meota’s small staffing contingent that ensures continuous, reliable, quality service for you, our customers. Her background includes several Management designations through the University of Calgary and SAIT, followed by construction company management and accounting roles prior to her working for the Cochrane Lakes Gas Co-op Ltd. She is looking forward to working at Meota as it is now recognized as the most progressive gas co-operative in the province.

The Board of Directors is pleased to welcome your new management team to Meota and we look forward to meeting all of the challenges of managing and operating your gas cooperative in the coming years.

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Cash as Payment

Dear Member/Customer,

During these unprecedented times of the coronavirus pandemic we have reviewed our acceptance of cash payment for services and have determined that by accepting cash, we may be increasing the health and safety risk to both staff and customers. For this reason, the Board of Directors has chosen to no longer accept cash as payment for any monthly natural gas consumption invoice or any other billable services we provide. This policy is in effect immediately.

Payment options include; paying by cheque, online banking, Pre-authorized debit, or pay at your bank or ATM. If you would like to participate in our Pre-authorized Debit program, please send an email to or fill out a Pre-Authorized Debit form on our web page at and drop it off (though the mail slot)to us or email it to . We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause.

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John Martin - General Manager