Owen Sound’s water and wastewater rates are rising by more than five per cent this summer and the city’s mayor says he hopes taxpayers realize increases are “likely to get bigger” in the next few years.
In a 6-3 recorded vote Monday night, Owen Sound council approved a staff recommendation to increase water rates by five per cent for the July 2022 billing cycle.
“With a five per cent increase for 2022, the average annual bill will be just over $1,400, or an increase of $5.66 per month,” the city’s director of corporate services Kate Allan told councillors.
The wastewater surcharge will increase by 6.2 per cent.
The city engaged a consultant in 2020 to complete a rate study and financial plan, Allan’s report to council explains. That study recommended annual water rate increases of five per cent from 2020 to 2030 to ensure the financial sustainability of the city’s water and wastewater services.
The city increased its water rate by four per cent in 2021 and had a zero per cent increase in 2020 due to Covid.
Owen Sound did not make any increases to the water portion of rates between 2016-19 in favour of increasing just the wastewater surcharge, Allan told councillors Monday. That resulted in annual increases of approximately three per cent to water/wastewater bills during that period.
“It’s probably going to get worse in the coming years or more challenging … for council to make these decisions,” says Owen Sound Mayor Ian Boddy. “And five per cent is a happy medium after we as a group made a decision to go with (zero per cent) in 2020.”
Allan’s report says six per cent increases are anticipated for 2023 and the following nine years. The wastewater surcharge increase would continue to be set at 124 per cent of water rates (7.4 per cent increase as of 2023) through 2030.
According to a BMA study included in a presentation to council, the average annual residential Owen Sound water/wastewater bill (for 200 cubic metres of consumption) was $1,344 in 2020, in line with the average for other municipalities with water services in Grey Bruce ($1,371).
Other municipalities listed in the BMA data were: Grey Highlands ($1,393), Hanover ($782), Kincardine ($1,046), Meaford ($1,958), Saugeen Shores ($1,230), South Bruce Peninsula ($1,946), Southgate ($1,467), The Blue Mountains ($1,093) and West Grey ($1,449).
Councillors Scott Greig, Carol Merton and Marion Koepke voted against the recommendation to hike water rates by five per cent in July.
Greig: “I’m not in favour of the recommendation as is, because I think we should be spending more time assessing it.”
Koepke: “We know that our infrastructure is in bad need of repair and we know it’s costly. But looking at it for the Owen Sound taxpayer, they’re looking at 2.61 increase in taxes cause of budget we approved, and 5 per cent more to (water rates) is not going to be something that’s going to be very well swallowed.”
Coun. Richard Thomas moved the motion, saying infrastructure doesn’t pay for itself and we have a lot of infrastructure in Owen Sound that needs to be paid for.
“I know up until a few years ago (we were) still pulling wooden pipes and things out of the ground,” Thomas says. “I don’t like to see things increase but I recognize this infrastructure won’t improve if we don’t pay for it.”
One of the major capital projects partially funded by water rates in the next couple of years is a $4-million water treatment plant filter refurbishment. The city is receiving $3-million in grant funding for that project. Another high priority project scheduled for 2024/25 is the assessment and potential repair of the municipal trunk main, which primarily dates back to the 1960s, a city staff report explains. It’s expected the assessment would cost $300,000, while $2-million will be set aside for potential repairs.
Owen Sound provides drinking water to just over 7,000 accounts and services all properties in its boundaries, as well as a few accounts outside city-limits to properties in Georgian Bluffs and Meaford.