Starting Jan. 1, County of Barrhead residents will have to pay more for both water and sewer services.
Councillors unanimously approved the increase as part of their Dec. 18 discussion on Bylaw 2018-6, also known as the 2019 Water and Sewer Utility Bylaw.
On average, the bylaw increases both metered and unmetered water services, as well as sanitary sewer charges, by five per cent.
Metered water service rates for the first 10 cubic metres/month will increase to $50.20 per cubic metre /month from $47.81. For over 10 cubic metres, the rate increases from $16.16/month to $16.97/month.
Unmetered water service for residential dwellings will increase from $78.63 per unit/month to $82.56 per unit/month. Unmetered water service for other applications goes from $122.87 to $129.01 per unit/month.
Sanitary sewer charges will increase to $49.92 per unit/month from $39.32 per unit/month. Where water service is unmetered, or not provided by the county, sewer service will be 50 per cent of the unmetered water charge.
In a separate motion, councillors directed administration to conduct a comprehensive review of utility rates, cost recovery expectations as well as service levels.
County manager Debbie Oyarzun said she brought the bylaw forward for consideration because the Barrhead Regional Water Commission (BRWC) has increased the rate it sells water to the municipalities to $2.20 per cubic metre, a 2.33 per cent increase.
“If you recall, when we had our interim budget discussions, we were actually projecting a slight decrease in costs, and subsequently we would see a drop in our budget,” she said.
Even though the interim budget includes the BRWC rate increase, administration had projected an overall decrease in water and sewer costs mainly due to a drop in the price of materials. However, Oyarzun said they are not sure if that will remain the case depending if councillors decide to implement a cost of living adjustment (COLA) or a potential increase in insurance rates.
Normally as part of the interim budget process, councillors generally build in COLA increases for county staff, but this year they decided to delay making a decision on any potential wage increase until the final budget is adopted sometime in the spring.
“If we look at the maximum risk for both COLA and an insurance increase, we are probably going to see an increase in expenses of $2,900,” she said.
Administration noted that in the last three years, the county’s water and sewer rates have come increasingly short of covering its expenses. In 2016, the county recovered 96 per cent of its costs, while in 2017 and 2018, the amount dropped to 94 and 85 per cent respectively, which is why they recommended councillors bump up the rate by either three or five per cent.
Reeve Doug Drozd suggested council develop a policy to determine how much they wanted of the costs they wanted to recover that way administration could set rates accordingly.
“If we said our utility charges should fit in the range, for argument’s sake, 85 to 95 per cent of cost recovery, it would give administration a target to shoot for and could set rates accordingly,” he said.
Oyarzun agreed but said any discussion should include industry, noting their current bylaw is geared towards residential users.
“Right now our sewer rates are 40 per cent of water consumption and we don’t actually monitor sewer discharge, but some of our industrial processes extract all of the water so less than that is actually going into the sewer system,” she said. “So perhaps we should consider that and come up with industry rates.”
Coun. Walter Preugschas suggested that the cost of the county’s utilities should be 100 per cent user pay.
Drozd said that is the aim, but because of inefficiencies in the system, it usually doesn’t happen.
“Mind you, I am sure you will have residents who use those services will make a case saying, ‘We pay good property tax for the service so we deserve a bit of a break’,” he said.
Coun. Marvin Schatz noted the argument goes both ways, suggesting facetiously that as a well user ,perhaps he should get a break on his tax bill because he isn’t using the county’s water infrastructure.
