Water rates in Kamloops will increase by 18 per cent in 2024.

Kamloops Council voted 6-2 in favour of that increase which will mean an extra $69 in water costs for the average Kamloops household in 2024.

It was the most expensive of the three options presented by Corporate Services Director David Hallinan with a total increase in water rates of 63 per cent – or $307 – between 2024 and 2028.

Rates are expected to go up 15 per cent in 2025 and 2026, 10 per cent in 2027 and 5 per cent in 2028.

“This smooths the increase over a broader period, and provides adequate funding for the reserve that we are able to utilize just in case and be able to help manage some of the broader inflationary factors that we’re seeing in the construction industry,” Hallinan said Tuesday.

He also said the water rates in Kamloops were unchanged from 2014 to 2022. It went up 1 per cent this year, taking the average annual water bill in Kamloops to about $383 – or $1.05 per day.

Councillor Mike O’Reilly spoke in favour of the option titled ‘Smooth Rate and Borrow’ which will see the City borrow $10 million to address intake issues at the Kamloops Centre for Water Quality, a debt city staff expect to pay off by 2028.

“When most people have a large expense in their life, whether buying a new car or buying a new home or having to do a significant update to their homes, they end up having to take out some form of a loan, whether that’s a line of credit or a mortgage,” O’Reilly said.

“What we were presented in Option 2 of $550,000 in interest, to me that’s a worst case scenario.”

Councillor Katie Neustaeter also advocated for that option over the original 25 per cent water rate hike that was approved at the Oct. 31 meeting, but rescinded a week later.

“There is nothing wrong with borrowing. It is a bit more work for staff. I don’t blame them for not wanting to do that but considering the unexpected factors in here, I don’t think its unreasonable either,” Neustaeter said.

“But I do think those two [options] come to a wash. One of them is easier, one of them isn’t, and I don’t know why we wouldn’t go with option number two in light of that.”

Mayor Reid Hamer-Jackson and Councillor Margot Middleton voted against the plan.

“Whether we go 25 per cent, whether we go 18 per cent, whether we go any per cent over five per cent is going to be considered too high for many in our community,” Middleton said.

“For some some any amount is more than they have disposable income to spend on so. We are going to get flack no matter what we do so we might just as well wear it.”

Mayor proposes using grant funding to pay for utilities

At Tuesday’s meeting councillors did not second a motion by Mayor Hamer-Jackson. He proposed an increase of 12 per cent for the next two years and six per cent for each of the three following years, suggesting that the city use grant funding to make up the difference.

“I’m kind of a positive person when it comes to winning the game,” Hamer-Jackson said. “When people are saying that there’s infrastructure grants and all that, why don’t we think positive? [Why don’t we] think that we may get those grants instead of thinking that we may not?”

Hallinan said the risk was too high as there was no guarantee that Kamloops would get the grant funding it applied for as grants are often over-subscribed with numerous applications all vying for the same pot of money.

“I don’t believe it’s good fiscal management to be relying upon uncertainty with grants to be able to pay for projects,” Hallinan said, noting the mayor’s proposed five-year plan would put the water utility reserve “into a negative position” by the third year.

Kamloops CAO David Trawin also said the city could adjust rates in the future if grant funding was successful.

Councillors Dale Bass, Kelly Hall, Katie Neustaeter, Mike O’Reilly and the Mayor were opposed to reinstating the initial 25 per cent increase in water rates. Councillors Middleton, Stephen Karpuk, and Bill Sarai voted in favour of that increase which would have meant an extra $95 in water costs for the average household next year.

Councillor Nancy Bepple was not at the meeting, as she was in Ottawa for the Federation of Canadian Municipalities’ Advocacy Days event.

City Councillors had to make a decision Tuesday as they’ll have to adopt the 2024 Utility Rates Bylaw – which sets the rates for water, sewer, and solid waste – by the end of this year. That is expected to happen by the Dec. 12 meeting.

City staff told Radio NL the increase in water rates this year is needed to cover the $3.2 million in decommissioning payments going to users of the Noble Creek Irrigation System. It is also needed to offset development cost charges for new home construction approved earlier in the year.

Solids waste pick-up fees will jump around 7-per cent, or $22 a year – $12 of which is for the new curbside organics program, while sewer rates would rise 2.5-per cent, or $12 a year.

Earlier this week, Hallinan also told Radio NL that Kamloops staff are putting the finishing touches on the overall 2024 budget which will be presented at the Nov. 28 Committee of the Whole meeting.

“I think personally its going to be a tough year [based on] what we have seen in the market and seeing some of the other municipalities and the early numbers that we’re starting to see,” Hallinan said.

He would not speculate how much the 2024 property tax increase in Kamloops could be at this time.