Water rates in King Township are going up 11.7 per cent in 2017

YorkRegion.com
Nov. 16, 2016
Tim Kelly

You will be paying nearly 12 per cent more on your water bill in 2017.

King Township council approved the increase on Monday night after a report to council showed the water and wastewater rates for residents and businesses in the township will jump by 11.7 per cent on Jan. 1. That means the average King Township residential water user will pay $10.53 more per month in 2017 than they did in 2016, with rates going from $89.77 per month to $100.30 per month.

That increase comes after water/wastewater rates had already jumped 10.1 per cent in 2016 over 2015 rates. The 2017 increase did not come out of the blue as water rates have been projected to jump in municipalities across York Region by an average of 9-10 per cent a year over the next five years.

When water rates jumped by 10.1 per cent this past year, Mayor Steve Pellegrini confirmed the Region of York, which supplies water for the township, was moving away from subsidizing water and wastewater through property taxes in the future. That comes after legislation from the Province of Ontario that water and wastewater systems must operate on the basis of a full cost recovery rate structure with no subsidies provided.

"Whoever consumes the service needs to pay for it. It won't be subsidized by tax dollars any longer," Pellegrini said at a township council meeting one year ago.

"There needs to be 100 per cent cost recovery ... we're not there yet," he said last November.

At that time, it was believed the combined cost to the user for water and wastewater would jump by an average of about 9 per cent a year through 2020, when it's believed full cost recovery will be reached.
Councillor Debbie Schaefer wanted to know why the 2017 increase is well over the 9-10 per cent projected increase users had been told to expect a year ago.

"We've got to deal with some legacy financing charges that had not been built into the rate. So, our water and sewer reserves were in a deficit position. That's one of the factors that is driving the cost," said Township treasurer Allan Evelyn.

Evelyn told council he expects the King Township rate will "Be consistently higher (than 9 per cent increases)," in the future.

Several councillors referred to huge water bills their residents had received, many of them apparently connected to water leaks — a leaky pool or sprinkler system were mentioned as possibilities — or other water problems.

"One problem was linked to a faulty water softener system inside a house that was just constantly running," Councillor Cleve Mortelliti said.

"Some of these issues, like an underground sprinkler system, if there's a leak you may not know," Mortelliti added.

"You really have to do your own due diligence inside your own home," he said.