MOOSE JAW — City council has updated the sewer and water utility bylaw, which means property owners will pay more for those services starting next month.
Council gave three unanimous readings to the sewer and water utility bylaw amendment during its Feb. 10 regular meeting, which means starting Saturday, March 1, costs for water services will increase by four per cent and for sewer services will increase by four per cent.
, so city administration brought forward a bylaw amendment to make the changes official.
For water services, most property owners will pay an extra $3.09 per month or $37.08 for the year, while for sewer services, they will pay an extra $2.46 per month and $29.52 for the year.
Coun. Heather Eby said during the meeting that councillors usually receive calls during the summer from people asking why they must pay wastewater rates when they’re watering their lawns.
“It’s just important for people to remember that our sanitary sewer infrastructure is as critical as any other infrastructure, and this is a utility, and the utility rate needs to pay for that infrastructure, even though water doesn’t seem to be going into that system … ,” she continued.
“I know there are some places that have a summer rate, but we’ve talked about it before and it just hasn’t been feasible.”
Finance director Brian Acker agreed that this is an issue that comes up annually but pointed out that the municipality doesn’t have the technology or infrastructure to measure how much homeowners water their grass.
“The other reality of the situation is if there was a credit for that or you didn’t have to pay that fee, the reality is we would have to increase the other component of your wastewater fee to collect the same amount of dollars,” he said. “So … it would just be an exercise in potentially reallocating the charges (and) our consumers wouldn’t see an overall savings.”
Upcoming changes
Commencing March 1:
- In-city customers will pay $1.649 per cubic metre of water consumed
- Out-of-city customers will pay $3.7103 per cubic metre of water consumed
- Canadian Forces Base (15 Wing) Moose Jaw will pay $2.4737 per cubic metre of water consumed
- Customers receiving water from the municipality’s dispensing devices will pay $4.7935 per cubic metre of water consumed
- The Caron/Mortlach Regional Public Utility Board will pay $3.0919 per cubic metre of water consumed
- In-city customers will pay $1.7055 per cubic metre of water consumed for sewage services
Meanwhile, consumers with a service connection to the city’s potable water system will pay a service connection fee based on the pipe size connecting their homes, ranging from $39.28 per month for 15- to 20-millimetre pipes to $392.88 per month for 51- to 75-millimetre pipes to $4,714.64 per month for pipes larger than 200 millimetres.
Furthermore, consumers with a service connection to the city’s sewer system will pay a service connect fee based on the pipe size connecting their homes, ranging from $21.28 per month for 15- to 20-millimetre pipes to $212.87 per month for 51- to 75-millimetre pipes to $2,554.44 per month for pipes larger than 200 millimetres.
Property owners who want temporary water service must pay a connection fee of $100 and a deposit of $300. Meanwhile, they must pay $40 to reconnect or disconnect from either system, while it will cost $85 as a call-out fee for support during regular working hours.
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Feb. 24.
