Water, sewer rates retained

CITY

Posted By BOB BRUTON

Posted 9 months ago

Water and sewer bills for Barrie homeowners will continue to flow from consumption levels.

By a narrow 6-5 margin, city council has decided to retain the current residential rate structure -- nixing one approved from staff.

Barrie's current residential rate structure has monthly fixed charges and four consumption thresholds, with costs rising as consumption increases.

"There is proof people living in Barrie are using less water (with the current system)," she said. "There is a global water crisis. We need to conserve water."

Coun. Barry Ward agreed.

"It sends the wrong message to abandon our very successful program," he said, noting the staff recommendation goes the other way.

"We would be rewarding people for using more water," he said.

Ed Archer, Barrie's general manager of corporate services, says the city relies too much on volume charges to recover its needed revenues.

The current rate structure recovers 26% of the water service's fixed costs, and 24% of the sewer costs.

The new rate structure was to allow the city to recover 34% of the revenue needed by 2014.

But council has restored the status quo, much to Coun. Jeff Lehman's chagrin.

"There is a balance question, between equity and conservation," he said. "We are going back to a system that charges residential customers a lot more than non-residential customers."

The defeated rate structure would have likely meant homeowners would see higher annual bills, although industry and business could get a break -- depending on what council decides at budget time.

It could have meant 11% increases in water rates and 16% increases in sewer rates, right across the board, next year.

Under current water/sewer rates, the average residential customer using 250 cubic metres will pay $564 this year. This user will now pay an extra $77 next year, or $641, an increase of 13.6%.

Under the rate structure recommended by city staff, this same user would pay another $65, or $630, in 2010, a hike of 11.6%.

City staff had also said that Barrie's water and sewer bill process was too complicated, and that the new one would be easier to understand because there would be fewer threshold levels.

Strachan disagreed with this notion too. "To say the water bill is too complex is nonsense," she said. "People are used to it."

While the rate structure for homeowners is staying the same, changes have been made for other non-residential users.

Next year there will be a two-band structure for them, with the second band having a consumption threshold of 15 cubic metres a month, with a 50% premium. The mandate from council is to develop a water and sewer rate structure strategy which would meet full cost recovery.

bbruton@thebarrieexaminer.com

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