Duane Hicks
Fort Frances residents will not see an increase in sewer and water rates in 2009, but some industrial, commercial, and institutional (ICI) customers will end up paying more.
While the rates have not yet been passed as a bylaw, town council approved a report yesterday afternoon that will see the minimum sewer and water rate for ICI remain the same at $1,014.96 per year, or $84.85 per month ($44.94 for water and $39.64 for sanitary sewer).
But the threshold at which ICI customers have to start paying more for water used has been lowered. The number of cubic meters included in the minimum monthly bill for ICI customers has been reduced to 20 cubic metres a month, or 240 cubic meters a year.
This is way down from last year, when 657.60 cubic metres were included per year in the minimum bill for ICI customers.
As well, the volumetric ICI metered rate (the rate paid for water used above the 20 cubic metres a month) will be set at $1.71 ($0.92 for water and $0.79 for sanitary sewer) per cubic metre.
This is an 11.76 percent increase over the 2008 rate of $1.53 per cubic metre.
Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown said the Operations and Facilities executive committee had several objectives when developing the 2009 rates.
These included:
•obtaining an additional $179,750.04 in revenue compared to the 2008 budgeted forecasted revenue;
•starting the process of addressing the inherent inequities within the classes, whereby ICI customers would start paying a rate closer to the actual costs of manufacturing water and treating wastewater; and
•adjusting ICI rates in order to reduce the residential and non-residential subsidization of those rates that has been going on for years.
For example, ICI used 33 percent of all treated water here in 2008 but only paid for 21 percent of it—leaving residential and non-residential customers to make up the 12 percent difference.
Brown said the adjustment to ICI this year also is to help prepare for the implementation of residential water meters and a fully metered system, which is expected to take place in the next few years.
Since a fully metered system will mean the upward adjustment of ICI rates to be in line with residential metered rates, the adjustments have to start now to avoid “a huge rate shock all at once.”
Meanwhile, the residential sewer and water rate will remain the same as in 2008 at $770.04 per year, or $64.17 per month ($34.09 for water and $30.08 for sewer).
The volumetric metered rate per cubic metre for Couchiching First Nation and other non-residential customers will be set at $3.99 per cubic metre, which breaks down to $2.12 per cubic metre for water and $1.87 per cubic metre for sanitary sewer.
The 2008 rate was $3.50 per cubic metre ($1.86 for water and $1.64 for sewer).
And the water rates for private fire hydrants will go up from $40 to $42 per month while private sprinklers will increase from $12.54 to $13.17 per month, representing a five percent hike over 2008 rates for both.
The 2009 sewer and water rates will be voted on as a bylaw at a future council meeting.
