Discounts suggested for Mississauga’s new McMansion tax
In Kitchener, a stormwater charge based on the size of coverage on lots offers residents rebates if they reduce rainfall run-off. Some in Mississauga say its new plan should be tweaked the same way.

TheStar.com
May 21, 2015
San Grewal

Mississauga is about to move forward with a levy for stormwater costs, based on the size of your home and how much rain water it sends into aging infrastructure. Toronto is currently looking at the same approach. One question already being asked is, should homeowners get to reduce their cost if they can prevent stormwater run-off?

In Kitchener, one of the first cities in Canada to adopt the approach, incentives were eventually offered to help residents lower their costs.

“There were a lot of questions before that. There was skepticism,” says Nick Gollan, Kitchener’s stormwater utility manager. “There was still some skepticism, but once we implemented the credit program and residents saw the savings on their bill that ended that discussion. People thought the municipality is doing the right thing.”

That hadn’t been the case in 2011, when Kitchener brought in the dedicated stormwater management charge without any incentives to residents who wanted to reduce their charge — for example, by using rain barrels, cisterns, permeable driveways or other methods to reduce run-off into the city’s stormwater pipes. Businesses, however, were offered incentives to reduce their cost.

“We originally were not going to offer credits,” Gollan says. “We heard loud and clear from residents that that was not fair. We listened to them.” Two years after the program was launched the city offered the credit program to residents retroactively, giving homeowners up to 45 per cent of their charge back to them in the form of a reduced bill, if they took steps to reduce stormwater run-off. Since the offer, 5,000 residents have taken advantage of the incentive program. Gollan says, “It’s all about getting people to buy into conservation.”

That’s the point Councillor George Carlson is trying to make in Mississauga, where on Wednesday council passed the motion to go ahead with its plan that will charge residents stormwater fees based on the size of each home’s roofprint. The plan will likely get final approval next week, but like Kitchener in 2011, Mississauga is giving no discounts to homeowners — but is offering cost-saving incentives to businesses and multi-unit residential buildings.

“I think the idea of offering incentives to residents will be revisited,” Carlson said Wednesday after council gave preliminary approval for the new funding plan, which will see millions more raised each year for stormwater management. Carlson thinks there will be less backlash from residents if they can reduce their own costs.

He says it will also help change attitudes that currently lead to the construction of monster homes, and other choices that send more runoff into the city’s stormwater pipes. “The whole idea is to get everyone to buy in.”

Dorothy Tomiuk, a spokesperson for MIRANET, the city’s umbrella network of residents’ association and ratepayer groups, agrees with Carlson on that point: “We advocated before council on this a couple of years ago. We criticized the fact that only businesses are getting incentives.” Tomiuk says residents feel like they are losing control of their own finances.

“We see one levy after another — it’s the new way of collecting taxes, calling it something else. At least give residents the option of making smart choices to reduce their costs. It’s a win-win for everyone.”