City to consider homeowner loan program to replace lead pipes
Following Star Investigation on lead in drinking water, the public works committee will consider a loan program option for homeowners to replace their pipes.

theStar.com
Aug. 7, 2014
Jennifer Pagliaro

Homeowners could soon replace their lead pipes with the help of government loans under a new program recommended by city officials but opposed by the head of the public works committee.

The recommendations come after a Star investigation showed that 13 per cent of all households tested had an unsafe level of lead in their drinking water.

If a street’s water mains are not already scheduled for maintenance, the only way to get the city to replace a lead connection on its end sooner is for a homeowner to agree to replace their side of the connection on private property before or at the same time.

But residents and some city councillors said there should be help for those who can’t afford to foot an estimated $3,000 bill upfront.

If city council approves the plan to develop the loan program, homeowners would be able to apply for low-interest financing to be paid back through their annual property taxes for up to 10 years.

Councillor Sarah Doucette, who earlier seconded a motion by Councillor Janet Davis about studying a loan program, said it’s a welcome push to reducing the number of lead pipes in the city.

“It makes it much more feasible for people,” she said.

For someone like Mark Haan, an East York homeowner and father of a young son who the Star spoke to in May about wanting to get his pipes fixed, the program would have helped.

Lucky for Haan — who said his family was just waiting for the right time financially to get the pipes fixed — his lead connections were replaced for free after a local contractor saw his story and offered to help.

“It’s tough on families,” he said. “I stand behind the program. It would have been helpful for me.”

But Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the public works committee said a city program is unnecessary when homeowners who can go to the bank for a similar loan.

“We’re doing as much as we can on our side,” he said. “We’re unnecessarily creating a parallel process, a duplicated process.”

Minnan-Wong said homeowners should consider their water pipes an important home asset worth fixing. But he questioned whether a city loan program would encourage more people to fix the problem sooner. City surveys of homeowners have shown more people would rather do home renovations, such as redoing their kitchens, than replacing lead pipes, he said.

Doucette said the real issue is the city’s move to reduce the number of annual lead pipe replacements.

In 2011, the city approved a new strategy which saw the target number of replacements per year reduced to 5,000 from 11,000. The modified plan set caps of 3,000 replacements for planned city work and 1,500 for priority replacements done in cooperation with homeowners.