Sudbury Northern Life Reporter Bill Bradley
City homeowners who are stingy with their water use deserve a break on their water and wastewater bills, said city councillors at a budget meeting Tuesday.
“Water rates are too high. I know of seniors who are using rainwater for household uses in order to save money,” said Ward 4 Coun. Evelyn Dutrisac.
She was responding to a report from city staff outlining a tax hike of 5.0 per cent for water and wastewater services. Though it had been reduced to 5.8 per cent by staff, that still was too high for Dutrisac.
“We need to bring this down to 2.0 per cent. Some people will lose their homes over this hike,” said Dutrisac.
Ward 11 Coun. Janet Gasparini said staff needed to work on the water rate structure.
“We need to support water savers,” said Gasparini.
Nick Benkovich, Greater Sudbury water and wastewater director, said he is working towards revising the water rate structure.
“The current system does provide an incentive for conservation. It is not a one to one ratio where your bill drops by the percent of water used as we have heard some councillors ask about. There are some costs with delivering the services to the house that still exist even if no water is used during that billing period,” said Benkovich.
“We have water mains in the ground that need service. We have water treatment plants that need to be operated and maintained for the benefit of the whole city,” he said.
However, Benkovich said there is room for improvement in the billing rate. He would investigate what other municipalities are doing to encourage conservation while maintaining revenue flows for the necessary infrastructure to ensure sufficent safe and clean water flows from the tap when required.
