City report will look at ways to protect Winnipeggers hit with high water bills

A report could offer options to help Winnipeggers struggling with high water bills after a motion to study the issue got support at a council committee meeting.

Coun. Matt Allard (St. Boniface) raised the motion at last month's council meeting, asking city staff to report on ways the city can protect residents facing high water bills.

At the water and waste committee meeting on Monday, staff told councillors they already planned to examine ways to support low-income residents who have trouble paying for water services, as part of the city's poverty reduction strategy.

The committee passed a motion, raised by Coun. Vivian Santos (Point Douglas), asking for an update on that work, due in September.

Speaking to the committee before the vote, Allard told them he and other councillors have heard from people who find themselves hit with unexpectedly large water bills, and for various reasons are unable to pay.

Any assistance programs would need clear limits and should only be used in certain cases, Allard said in an interview.

"It's not something that should be widely applied," he said.

"There may be a leak or there is something else going on. There would have to be criteria established."

Allard called the committee's decision to look at work onthe poverty reduction strategy "a step in the right direction."

A spokesperson for the city said there are programs to help people with their water bills.

The Help to Others (H2O) program, administered through the Salvation Army, replaced a previous program that offered one-time forgiveness to customers unable to pay their bill, which was eliminated in 2017.

The H2Oprogram offers help to low-income individuals and families struggling with their utility bill.

The program has a limited amount of money available, which is set by council, and the amounts given out depend on the number of people enrolled in the program, water and waste director Tim Shanks told the committee.

The review through the poverty reduction strategy will consider those limits, and the application process, to see if the program can be made more accessible, he said.

"Are those numbers relevant? Should they be more? Should it not be based on the number of people?"

The city also has a leak credit policy, which provides help to single-family residential and non-profit customers when leaks cause high water bills.

A city spokesperson said the upcoming shift to automated meter readers is expected to cut down on the number of high bills due to leaks, by catching them earlier.

Josh Brandon, community animator with the Social Planning Council of Winnipeg, has lobbied the city to ease the burden of high utility costs, including calling on council to reverse a recent decision to increase water and sewer rates over the next four years.

It's "good news" the city is looking at the supportsit gives through its existing programs, but the city needs to do more, he said.

"We know that water is a human right and is essential for a healthy life, especially in a climate like ours, which has such variability," he said.

Water and waste chair Brian Mayes said he'll wait to see what staff say in the report, but setting rates or offering supports based on income is complicated by the fact that city taxes are based on property values, not income.

"It's a valid concern, but it'snot easy to implement just because we don't know the city doesn't track everybody's income."

The motion calling for the report still needs approval from council.

Landfill gas and sewage plant

The committee also received a verbal update on discussions with a private contractor to convert methane from the Brady Road landfill into renewable energy.

Currently, the city burns off up to 85 per cent of the methane emitted from the landfill.

In 2022, the city asked staff to negotiate with Integrated Gas Recovery Services (IGRS) to find potential customers for the landfill gas.

At the meeting on Monday, solid waste services manager Michael Gordichuk said the city is waiting for the provincial government to sign off on an amendment to the agreement with IGRS, which he expectsto happen within the next two months.

"Methane is extremely harmful to the environment. So basically what we're doing here is we'retaking that methane and we're turning it into a renewable fuel," he said.

The gas would be pumped through theTransCanada pipeline, which runs through the Brady Road landfill. Gordichuk expects the project to be up and running by 2026.

The committee also approved a request to increase the budget for the first phase of the North End sewage treatment plant upgrade by $44.5 million. The increase was needed to cover costs associated with a pipe failure that caused damage and construction delays in June.