A petition calling for the continuation of the Rate Stabilization Fund, which helps reduce Yukoners' power rates, is being circulated by the Utilities Consumers' Group.

Florence Roberts, secretary for the group, said in an interview this morning the petition has been placed in local businesses. The intent is to have it distributed to all the Yukon's communities.

Energy Minister Archie Lang announced in late March the continuation of the nine-year-program to the end of June, but said he couldn't indicate what would happen after that.

Under the program, residential, commercial and municipalities get a break on their monthly electrical bills.

Residential consumers, for example, receive up to $37 a month off on their first 1,000 kilowatt hours used, or less if consumption is lower.

While Lang says there is no question the fund provides a subsidy to ratepayers, the consumers' group refers to the monthly payment as a dividend to Yukoners who own Yukon Energy and the Yukon Development Corp.

The petition states Yukoners cannot afford a 30 per cent jump in their electrical bills, and goes on to say:

'Yukon ratepayers are the rightful owners of Yukon Energy Corporation and the Yukon Development Corporation, and therefore have received and are entitled to a dividend return on said investment in the form of the Rate Stabilization Fund.

'Therefore: Be it resolved that the Rate Stabilization Fund continue as is indefinitely.'

Roberts expects the petition will be in circulation until early to mid-June.

Timing, as well as who will be asked to present it to the legislature, will be up for discussion at the annual general meeting of the consumers' group on April 26.

Lang suggested continuation of the fund is under review in conjunction with ongoing efforts to increase energy efficiency initiatives in the territory.

Yukoners will have a better understanding of where the government is heading with its energy program as announcements are made in the weeks and months ahead, Lang said.

The Yukon Conservation Society says it's time for an end to the stabilization fund.

It is unequal, as not all ratepayers receive the same amount, and it actually penalizes those consumers who make efforts to reduce consumption by providing less of a subsidy, while providing more money to those who consume more, the society maintains.

The society believes Yukoners would be better off using the money from the fund to increase conservation and energy efficiency programs.

Opposition parties, like the society, say it may be time to review the fund, but all agree it should remain for those Yukoners who can least afford to lose it.

The fund was created in 1998 by the NDP government under Piers McDonald as a means of protecting consumers from a jump in rates brought on by that year's closure of the Faro mine, which was consuming 40 per cent of the electricity on the system at the time.

It was subsequently extended under the Liberal government of Pat Duncan, and for a further two years by the Yukon Party government in 2005.

The fund has paid out $29 million over the last nine years, 88 per cent of which has gone to residential consumers, 11 per cent to the business sector and one per cent to municipalities.