TMX group

CALGARY, June 8 /CNW/ - (TSX:FTS) - Today, FortisAlberta and the City of
Airdrie signed a 10-year Electric Distribution Franchise Agreement. This
agreement grants FortisAlberta the exclusive right to own, operate and
maintain the electric distribution service within Airdrie's rights-of-way as
outlined in Section 45 of the Municipal Government Act.
Philip G. Hughes, President and CEO of FortisAlberta says, "We're pleased
to reach this agreement with the City of Airdrie. Over the past year, we've
worked closely together to help address Airdrie's concerns such as rapid
residential and industrial growth and we look forward to a continued working
partnership."
"Granting this franchise to FortisAlberta provides Airdrie with a long
term commitment and responsibility to ensure all electric distribution systems
are provided for," adds City of Airdrie Mayor, Linda Bruce. "We believe this
is a start to a collaborative partnership and we're eager about the new
possibilities of this relationship."
As a standard part of a franchise agreement, FortisAlberta will provide
the City of Airdrie with an annual report on service levels such as customer
satisfaction, responses to notification of outages and hazards, call centre
response times, meter reading frequency and accuracy, customer complaints and
employee safety. FortisAlberta has approximately 126 other franchise
agreements within its service area in Alberta.

FortisAlberta is an electric distribution company serving approximately
407,000 customers. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Fortis Inc., a
diversified, international electric utility holding company with assets
exceeding $4 billion and annual revenues of approximately $1.2 billion. The
Common Shares, Series C First Preference Shares, Series E First Preference
Shares of Fortis Inc. are traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the
symbols FTS, FTS.PR.C and FTS.PR.E, respectively. Fortis Inc. information can
be accessed at www.fortisinc.com.