Meters could shake up Stratford water cost

A consultant has strongly recommended that Stratford, P.E.I. install water meters and start charging residents for the amount of water they use, rather than a flat rate.

The town could take several approaches to moving towards a metered system.

"The town would buy the meters -- they're about 200 dollars each including installation -- and recover the costs through the charges," said Coun. Steve Ogden, chair of the utility committee.

"Another option was to have the residents purchase the meters, and the third option I guess was to do it in a phased way."

Whether meters would end up costing residents more would depend on each particular situation, said Ogden.

"The single person who's away a lot probably it wouldn't cost them a lot at all," he said.

"Whereas a family of six with some teenagers who have a lot of showers, that sort of thing, maybe they would pay a little more."

Mayor David Dunphy said council will take its time before deciding whether to adopt a metered water system.

"We haven't had any discussions, really, around council about how or what we do in that area," said Dunphy.

"It's really premature to really even comment on metering."

Both Dunphy and Ogden said with the town's water supply is at 85 per cent capacity right now and something does have to be done to curb consumption.