Kamloops City staff are going back to the drawing board to come up with ways to soften a planned 25 per cent increase to water rates next year.
The increase, which was tentatively approved at the Oct. 31 meeting, would have meant an extra $95 in water costs for the average Kamloops household.
Council voted 5-4 in favour of reconsidering that increase at the Nov. 7 meeting, with Councillors Bill Sarai, Nancy Bepple, Margot Middleton, and Stephen Karpuk opposed.
“As our city staff have pointed out, this was an unprecedented year for costs. What if next year is the same?” Karpuk said Tuesday. “If we defer a hard decision this year, and we get the same thing next year, we’re facing another potential hard decision – compounded by the fact that we deferred a decision.”
Speaking to Radio NL, Utility Services Manager Greg Wightman says staff will do their best to keep the increase as low as possible while ensuring they have enough in a reserve fund to cover any unforeseen costs.
“[Council is] not disputing the fact the the revenue generated by that increase is required,” Wightman said.
“What they’ve asked staff is come back with different options where we can potentially smoothen out that rate a bit so we don’t have 25 per cent in one year, or look at other funding options which could potentially include borrowing and things that we typically don’t necessarily defer to right away.”
Wightman says the increase in water rates was to cover the $3.2 million in decommissioning payments going to users of the Noble Creek Irrigation System. It is also due to council’s decision to increase the development cost charges’ water assist factor to support growth in Kamloops.
Council on Tuesday voted to pay 75 per cent of the costs for a temporary irrigation system in the Noble Creek area for next year’s growing season, which could translate to another 2 to 3 per cent increase in water rates.
Wightman says staff will present a new report details all of the impacts and possible options at the next City Council meeting on Nov. 21.
“Certainly a recognizing and understanding of council that that is a large increase and that is going to be very challenging for some people to absorb,” Wightman added.
“Obviously, a 25 per cent is something no body ever wants to see so that is what they’ve asked and we’ll certainly take a hard look at that again there and see if there are other creative ways to do that using things that we don’t typically recommend such as borrowing.”
City Council will have to adopt its new Solid Waste, Sanitary Sewer, and Water Amendment Bylaws before Dec. 31 of this year.
