As with other recent municipal budgets, the City of Greater Sudbury’s water/wastewater rates are slated to continue going up by 4.8 per cent annually in the 2024 and 2025 budget years.
The annual rate hike follows a long-term plan with annual 4.8-per-cent increases for each of the 20 years through 2039, which city council set in motion in 2019.
Increases of 4.8 per cent were also approved from 2020-23. From 2016 to 2019, the annual increases to water/wastewater rates were 7.4 per cent.
These annual increases, according to the city’s proposed 2024-25 budget document, will lead to “sustainability.”
It all comes down to filling the city’s water/wastewater infrastructure gap using a phased-in approach over the course of 20 years.
The average annual reinvestment currently needed in water/wastewater infrastructure capital is estimated at $96 million, and the five-year average spent has been $41.9 million, leaving an annual funding gap of $54.1 million.
With water/wastewater services funded on a user-pay basis, its annual budget ($97.5 million in 2024) is paid for via user fees charged to 48,000 residential and non-residential customers.
For the average homeowner who uses 200 cubic metres of water per year, the 4.8 per cent annual rate increase means they will pay an additional $73.24 for the service in 2024 compared to what they did in 2023.
Their 2025 bill will cost them an additional $76.47 compared to 2024, for a new total that year of $1,682.47.
During this week’s finance and administration committee meeting of city council, the city’s elected officials approved a $191.7-million, four-year capital budget for water/wastewater, encompassing 2024-27. This averages to an annual expenditure of $47.9 million.
City council members were unanimous in approving the water/wastewater operating and capital budgets during this week’s budget meeting (excluding Ward 2 Coun. Michael Vagnini, Ward 3 Coun. Gerry Montpellier and Ward 8 Coun. Al Sizer, who were not present).
Although their decision will still need to be ratified by city council as a whole, city council members’ unanimous support points to the likelihood it will end up passing.
The latest BMA study for 2022, which compares municipalities against one another by various metrics, cites Greater Sudbury’s water/wastewater rate of the day as comparatively “high.” At the time, a homeowner who used 200 cubic metres of water per year paid $1,470 per year, when the average among Ontario municipalities listed was $1,237.
Greater Sudbury budget deliberations will continue on Dec. 18 and Dec. 19.
The Dec. 18 finance and administration meeting begins at 1 p.m., and the Dec. 19 meeting begins at 9:30 a.m. Both meetings can be viewed in-person at Tom Davies Square or livestreamed by clicking here.
Tyler Clarke covers city hall and political affairs for Sudbury.com.
