At their regular meeting this week, City council passed a resolution to approve Utility Rate bylaws in order to set the 2014 utility rates for water, wastewater, and solid waste services.
“The 2014 operating budget required rate increases to the utilities to balance each utility budget,” said Corporate Services Director Michael Minchin.
“In addition to addressing increasing expenditures, the rates reflect the recycling and composting services for residential customers in 2014.”
The solid waste utility will see the largest increase in 2014 as the City moves to a household recycling collection service for residential customers.
The increase for residential customers is $3.42 per month, bringing the monthly total to $27.09.
Commercial customers will also see an increase of $6.55 per month for a total of $89.43 per month for regular weekly pickup.
Additional unscheduled pickups will increase to $45.58 per pickup.
The combined utility bill increase for the year for a regular household will now be $69.01 while a typical commercial customer will see an overall annual payment of $770.33.
“This year’s rates reflect the new recycling and composting service,” said Infrastructure Services Director Matthew Goudy. “We are happy to be able to offer residents a door-to-door recycling service, and enhanced access to the municipal recycling program. Between the two services, we are confident that the volume of household waste headed for the landfill will decrease.”
The water rates for 2014 will increase from $23.75 to $24.01 per month. The base fee is used to cover fixed costs such as administration and distribution costs. The per unit consumption rate is intended to cover the cost of water purchased from the regional water commission, as well as to account for water loss in the system. A 5% water loss is built into the rate.
The flat rate for wastewater services in 2014 increases from $11.65 to $12.28 per customer per month, and is used to cover fixed costs of the utility such as administration, debt payments and some operations.
Since the City does not meter its effluent, an approximation is used. The approximation used is the equivalent of 80% of metered water consumption. The 80% is a standard rate used by many municipalities to measure waste water recognizing that some water enters the stormwater system.
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