About 250 residents of the Municipality of Markstay-Warren crowded into the Golden Age Centre April 13 to oppose the roughly $5,500 fee each ratepayer in the Village of Warren is being asked to pay to recoup the costs of a water treatment plant.
In 2000, routine monitoring of the village's groundwater supply detected benzene contamination. On orders from the Ministry of the Environment, the municipality temporarily installed a granular activated carbon filter system, but a full treatment plant was still necessary for the long-term.
On Jan. 24, 2006, a public meeting was held to update residents on the Warren water project.
“The preferred construction solution was detailed, presented and accepted, along with the estimated project costs per household,” Coun. Caroline Steele said, in her presentation at the meeting.
Construction was set to start on the project in May; however, tenders came in higher than expected, pushing council back to the table to find a more cost-effective solution.
Because the project sat stagnant for such a long period of time, estimated costs went from $2.04 million in 2000 to $3.2 million in 2006, Steele explained.
In 2007, council presented a revised project to residents, which was put to tender in May. Another public meeting was held in August. Financial handouts were prepared by the treasurer to present the financial impact to the property-owners in the village.
By September 2008, the project was substantially completed. Just after November 2009, the municipality issued the final payment for the project — a total of $4,345,639. After government grants and other sources of funding, the Municipality of Markstay-Warren was left with a bill for $1,066,000 for the water treatment plant.
“Council unanimously agreed that the ratepayers who would benefit directly or indirectly from the service, namely water, would share the cost,” Steele said. “Indirectly means, you may not be benefiting from it at this point, but you may be benefiting at a future time.”
It was decided by council that the fairest option for the users was to charge per lot, with the Warren townspeople paying equal shares, she said.
Council also opted not to use any of the town's water or sewer reserves.
Markstay-Warren mayor Jean-Marc Chayer speaks at the meeting on April 13. Photo by Laurel Myers.
“Warren's water and sewer infrastructure (and machinery) is old and is going to be needing replacing in the future,” Steele said. “Another thing is emergency preparedness. What happens in the event of a water main break? Where do we get the money for that?”
While the town council has known about this surcharge since December 2009, according to Mayor Jean-Marc Chayer, residents did not receive notice of the pending payment until March 22, in the form of a letter. Residents were to decide by April 15 whether to make a one-time payment, or tack the fee onto a 20-year payment plan.
“People have known since 2008 there was a charge coming,” Steele said. “The problem was we couldn't supply the exact coast until the project was completed.”
Residents voiced their displeasure over the amount of time it took the municipality to tell them how much the water treatment plant would cost them.
“(The residents) have known about this since 2000,” Chayer told Northern Life after the meeting. “We've had two or three meetings and said it would be in between $3,300 and $6,800. People knew.”
He said “maybe” council should have given the ratepayers more notice of the pending bill.
“Maybe we made a mistake. I'll admit that, but people knew. They've been drinking this water since February 2008 and they knew it was coming. People could have prepared if they wanted to.”
One resident asked why ratepayers hadn't received smaller increases in taxes since the municipality realized the problem with the groundwater in 2000, rather than getting hit with the full amount 10 years later.
“For years and years, we did not think,” Chayer said. “The council of those days should have put money aside. It was not foreseen, and now we have to deal with the problem.”
The resident replied that the mayor's response was a “cop out.”
“Council had 10 years to budget for this,” another resident said. “How long you've been in the (mayor's) chair is irrelevant. You're passing the buck.”
Dan Ducharme, a spokesperson for the Warren residents, made a presentation to council, including a number of different options for cost recovery for the council to consider.
“The 2006 Census (states) the average Markstay-Warren person earns $6,000 less than the Ontario average,” he said. “In these tough economic times, a fee of $5,498.99 can cause financial stress on the affected residents.
“Included among the residents who have received this fee, are retired seniors who live on a fixed income, young people that are thinking of starting families and young families who simply can't afford to pay,” he continued. “Council has a responsibility to consider all the ramifications concerning the public's well-being.”
Markstay residents attending the meeting raised concerns about the fees being spread across the entire municipality.
“This was never a case where we said (the water project) was going to be charged to the whole municipality,” Chayer clarified.
At the end of the meeting, council voted to extend the deadline for the payment options to May 15. Councillors will also explore the options presented by Ducharme. The next open meeting will be held at the Markstay-Warren Arena, April 19, at 6:30 p.m.
