City of Powell River council will consider amending the waterworks regulations and rates bylaw to include increases of $12 to $15 over the next three years.
At the March 24 finance committee meeting, chief financial officer Adam Langenmaier told councillors that water rates have not increased since 2019.
“The reason why we didn’t see increases in 2020 and 2021 was because it was city council’s directive to keep those rates low to try and reduce the impact to the taxpayer through the COVID-19 time,” said Langenmaier. “That being said, we’re at a place where the available surplus and reserve contributions to the water fund are continuing to be eroded by inflation, and so these rate increases are to bring back some of those available funds and set us up for the future of what we need to do with the water system.”
Langenmaier said he was presenting a three-year bylaw and the overall increase to the water fund would be about $94,000. He said he had identified in a report to the finance committee a fee schedule, going from $318 annually in 2021, up to $330 in 2022, $345 in 2023 and $360 in 2024.
Councillor Cindy Elliott asked, when talking about the five-year financial plan, if the 4.1 per cent increase was outlined inclusive of the water fees.
Langenmaier said in the five-year plan, he has included the change to the water rate in that already.
The finance committee gave unanimous consent to send the amendment bylaw to city council for approval.
