Accessibility and Access Keys [0]
Some councillors say proposed water and sewer rate changes would unfairly penalize people who use less water, while city staff say they’re not targeting people who conserve.
Staff say they’re proposing the changes in order to stabilize the amount of revenue from water sales.
The current rate structure charges residents only for water used, but people have used less water in recent years, and the city has lost revenue even while water and wastewater costs increased.
Staff recommend a rate structure featuring a base rate, plus usage charges, to recover some of the system’s fixed costs. The proposed changes don’t increase revenues, but would guarantee that a certain amount of money would be collected each year regardless of how much water is sold, staff say.
A briefing session was held on Thursday for councillors and the media. The issue goes to the planning and environment committee next week.
The sticking point for some councillors is that as much as 20 per cent of residential customers who have low average monthly water consumption would likely see their bills rise about $5 per month.
Gloucester-Southgate Councillor Diane Deans said changing the rate structure made sense for stability and long-term planning, but “the people that are showing the lowest consumption … are actually the ones who are going to be paying more.”
Deans said staff should look into some sort of a system that used consumption to determine the base rate.
Orléans Councillor Bob Monette said he found it frustrating that the proposed change “punishes the ones that we should be rewarding.”
Innes Councillor Rainer Bloess said the principle was “right,” but “the application is to the disadvantage of the low user and benefits the high-volume user, which runs counter to our whole conservation principle.”
Staff say the changes don’t target people who conserve water. It’s not only low-volume users that try to save water, they say: A large family could be in the high-consumption class, but still uses water efficiently.
“It’s important to understand that all of those customer classes are conserving water, and so it isn’t unique to just the low-volume users,” said Dixon Weir, the city’s general manager of environmental services.
Staff also say residents will still be urged to conserve because most of the bill will remain tied to the amount of water used.
Under the proposed system, “people who conserve water will continue to benefit from lower water bills,” Bay Councillor Alex Cullen said. “There’s no intention whatsoever to target people who conserve.”