City asks residents to wade in on water, sewer bill changes
Charge for dealing with storm water could move to property tax bills so well-users also contribute
The City of Ottawa will hold public consultations in March and April about its plans to overhaul the way people are billed for drinking water and sewer systems.
The city says the current rate structure is unfair and unsustainable.
Currently, revenue from sewer and water bills flows into the rate-supported $316-million annual budget, paying for everything from salaries to wastewater treatment plants to new pipes.
But people's water consumption fluctuates — and has been dropping in recent years — while the costs of running the system are fairly constant, according to a city background document on the structure of water rates.
The city proposes two big changes:
- Charging people a fixed rate, in addition to the rate based on water consumption that's currently used.
- Getting people who don't pay a water bill to contribute to the stormwater system (such as homes on private well and septic systems or parking lot owners) by charging a separate stormwater rate on property tax bills.
"This is not designed for the bills to go up. It's revenue-neutral," said Coun. Jean Cloutier, who is a member of the environment committee that deals with the water system.
"Of course, depending on your consumption patterns, and mine, it will have an effect."
For instance, if a household uses no water whatsoever in a month, Cloutier described that its bill would never be zero in the future because there are fixed costs associated with having water available to the home.
Cloutier points out that Ottawa city council previously approved the annual six per cent hike in water rates in order to put aside more money to deal with repairing and adding water infrastructure.
At publishing time, eight public meetings are scheduled:
- March 21, from 7 to 9 p.m., Shenkman Arts Centre.
- March 29, from 7 to 9 p.m., West Carleton Community Complex.
- March 30 from 7 to 9 p.m., City Hall.
- March 31, from 7 to 9 p.m., Navan Memorial Centre.
- April 2, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., Metcalfe Community Centre.
- April 4, from 7 to 9 p.m., Kanata Recreation Complex, Hall A.
- April 5, from 7 to 9 p.m., Alfred Taylor Recreation Centre.
- April 7, from 7 to 9 p.m., Nepean Sportsplex.
City staff will come up with a report on their review of the structure of water and sewer rates this spring. Changes are expected to take effect in 2017.