City asks residents to wade in on water, sewer bill changes

The City of Ottawa will hold public consultations in March and April about itsplans to overhaul the way people are billed for drinking water andsewer systems.

The city says the current ratestructureis unfair and unsustainable.

Currently, revenue from sewer and water bills flows into the rate-supported$316-million annual budget, paying for everythingfrom salaries to wastewater treatment plants to new pipes.

But people's water consumptionfluctuates and has been dropping in recent years while the costs of running the system are fairly constant, according to acitybackground document on the structure of water rates.

The city proposes two big changes:

• Charging people a fixed rate,in addition to the ratebased on water consumptionthat's currently used.
• Getting people who don't paya water bill to contribute to thestormwatersystem (such as homes on private well and septic systems orparking lot owners)by charging a separate stormwater rate on property tax bills.

"This is not designed for the bills to go up. It's revenue-neutral," said Coun. Jean Cloutier, who is a member of the environment committee that deals with the water system.

"Of course, depending on your consumption patterns, and mine, it will have an effect."

For instance, if a household uses no water whatsoever in a month, Cloutier described thatits bill would never be zero in the futurebecause there are fixed costs associated with having water available to the home.

Cloutier points out that Ottawa city council previouslyapproved theannual six per cent hike in water rates in order toput aside more money to deal with repairing and addingwater infrastructure.

Atpublishing time, eightpublic meetings are scheduled:

• March 21, from 7 to 9 p.m., Shenkman Arts Centre.
• March 29, from 7 to 9 p.m., West Carleton Community Complex.
• March 30 from 7 to 9 p.m., City Hall.
• March 31, from 7 to 9 p.m., Navan Memorial Centre.
• April 2, from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m., Metcalfe Community Centre.
• April 4, from7 to 9 p.m., Kanata Recreation Complex, Hall A.
• April 5, from 7 to 9 p.m., Alfred Taylor Recreation Centre.
• April 7, from 7 to 9 p.m., Nepean Sportsplex.

City staff will come up with a report on their review of the structure of water and sewer rates this spring. Changes are expected to take effect in 2017.