Sudbury water rates frozen by city council vote

Morning North3:11Greater Sudbury city council freezes water rates

Greater Sudbury city council has voted to freeze water rates. There was plenty of debate over the issue. The average homer owner pays 11-hundred dollars a year for water. We have some of the exchange in the debate to raise or freeze water rates.

The newly-elected Sudbury city council has been focused on freezing property taxes in its first year in office, but last night, it also found a way to hold off an increase to water bills.

The meeting began with staff proposing a $44 hike for the average Sudburian. But after six hours of debate, council ended with a zero.

That was reached through a proposal by Mayor Brian Bigger to cut about $1.6 million out of the water and sewer department's budget, as well as pulling $733,000 out of city reserve funds.

The water rate freeze passed council by a vote of 9 to 4, with the votes against cast by councillors Joscelyne Landry-Altmann, Mark Signoretti, Deb McIntosh and Mike Jakubo. Council will vote again later this month to make this decision official.

City councillor Robert Kirwan was the first to suggest freezing the water rate, but had recommended pulling $2.4 million out of city reserves to achieve it.

Similar to council's arguments with the property tax rate, Kirwan argued it was best to get their "ducks in a row" over the next year before deciding what Greater Sudbury really needs when it comes to water and sewer,

But he didn't rule out that with millions of dollars worth of aging pipes and plants to replace, a big hike could follow this freeze.

"I mean if we look at it realistically, we may be looking at a 12 per cent increase next year," said Kirwan. "

I'm not worrying about next year, because it doesn't seem as if people have been worrying about what happens over the years to cover that gap."

Most other councillors were worried about dipping into city reserve funds, but did like the sound of a zero.

Instead, they went with Bigger's plan to reach a water rate freeze.

Bigger also proposed that $567,000 be cut from the capital budget, which pays for new water and sewer construction projects.

"My interpretation is that we're choosing not to further inflate the capital requests that have already been made," said Bigger.

But staff corrected the mayor, saying this cut will mean dropping some infrastructure projects from this year's to-do list, which includes upgrades to water treatment plants, lift stations and replacing underground pipes that have been there since the 1940s.

Bigger's water rate freeze proposal also included cutting $1.093 million from what the water and sewer department spends on contracted services and materials.

Most of the contractors are hired to respond to water main breaks.

Chief Administrative Officer Doug Nadorozny said that many cities just let broken water mains run all over the street for a few days until city crews can get to them and Greater Sudbury could follow their lead. 

The general manager of infrastructure services, Tony Cecutti, said he would "abide by whatever number" council decided on, but warned he is predicting the number of water main breaks in 2015 to top the 145 the city had last year.

"We're going to have more emergency breaks, not fewer," he said. "The winter's starting off very cold and we've already had a lot of breaks in December."

Five things learned about water and sewer in Greater Sudbury at Tuesday night's meeting:

1. The average age of a water and sewer pipe in Sudbury is 48 years. Some of the pipes scheduled to be replaced this year, including underneath Leslie, Hope and Noble Streets, are cast iron pipes that were installed 70 years ago.
2. Greater Sudbury has far more water and sewer plants to maintain than other cities. For example, Sudbury has 26 water treatment plants while Sault Ste. Marie has seven and North Bay and Timmins each have one.
3. There were 145 watermain breaks in Greater Sudbury in 2014. That's about double what it was in 2012. In 1994, there were 165 breaks. In 1983, there were 50 water main breaks.
4. Sudburians are using less and less water every year. There were 16.2 million cubic metres used in 2006 and this coming year, it's expected to be 14.2 million. This decrease has meant less revenue for the city and is one of the reasons the water rate has been continually climbing.
5. The average annual cost per citizen of running the water and sewer system in Greater Sudbury is $960. It's $892 for residents of North Bay, $763 in Sault Ste. Marie and $757 in Timmins.