East Gwillimbury water, wastewater rates may go up $96 this year

Yorkregion.com
April 16, 2015
By Simon Martin

The question to ask is not if your water and wastewater rates are going up, but by how much.

Last year, the increase was nine per cent, or $74 to the average residential user in East Gwillimbury. This year, town staff has proposed a budget with water and wastewater fixed rates increasing by $96 in 2015.

The increase is part of a four-year phased in proposal that would see fixed rates for water and wastewater double from a combined $304 annually in 2014 to a combined $620 in 2018.

Council has asked staff to look for additional creative solutions.

“We have to be careful of people’s ability to pay,” Councillor Marlene Johnston said.

The problem, according to the report, is the majority of the town’s costs are fixed and related to delivering water to residents, while revenue is variable and fluctuates with usage.

Town operations costs include water testing, delivering safe drinking water to property owners and delivering wastewater to York Region.

In the past four years, the average annual water consumption in the town has dropped from 260 to 230 cubic metres.

According to town staff, current water rates aren’t providing sufficient revenue to put money into reserves to eventually replace the infrastructure.

While the town has $2.2 million in water and wastewater reserves, the accumulated depreciation of the water infrastructure is estimated at $34 million.

Moving forward, the town’s challenge is to work away at this deficit, Councillor Tara Roy-DiClemente said.

The staff phase in proposal outlines a full cost recovery model.

East Gwillimbury is hardly alone in having a significant water infrastructure deficit. It is a challenge all municipalities are facing in the region.

It doesn’t help that the cost of buying water from the region has increased 60 per cent since 2010 and staff foresees 10 per cent annual increases in the cost of water for the foreseeable future.