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By Fred Sherwin
Orleans Online
The city’s environmental services committee stuck to the game plan on Monday, passing a 3.9 per cent water and sewer rate increase established in the department’s draft budget.
The rate increase, which is the lowest such hike since 2003, equates to an extra $24 for the average customer using 220 cubic metres of water a year.
By comparison water and sewer rates have increased by nine per cent in each of the last three years.
The city benefited from higher than expected consumption by non-residential customers in 2010 which saw water use rise by 3.5 per cent. The extra revenues have been us to keep this year’s increase in check.
Besides paying for clean drinking water, the revenue generated through water and sewer rates help fund various capital projects including the Ottawa River Action Plan which will drastically reduce the number of sewage outflows into the Ottawa River and turn it into a healthier and cleaner waterway.
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