Erin decides fate of water rates

Town of Erin council decided to freeze water rates at $3.99 per cubic metre for the next five years at the June 2 council meeting.  
This decrease of $0.30 from current rates will take effect Jan 1, 2016, pending the passage of a bylaw at a future council meeting.
Council was presented five rate models and ultimately decided to go with the capital model.
Councillor Matt Sammit argued for the depreciation model, which would have brought rates down to $3.49 per cubic metre.
“This is a third of our town that we are hitting hard and you want to hit them again,” said Sammit.  
“Something is wrong here … $100 to $200 out of a resident’s pocket is a lot of money for the average person.”
However, other councillors felt the depreciation model may hurt more in long run, when the current system needs to be repaired or replaced.
“We have an aging system that will require considerable capital down the road,” said Mayor Allan Alls.  
Councillor Rob Smith said, “I’m almost going with the depreciation model but … I see some money coming down the pipe for this, it’s going to tap into our reserves and we’ll be without reserves.”
Financial analyst for the Town of Erin Larry Wheeler eased concerns about the rates stopping businesses from coming to the area.
He mentioned that if a company uses more than an average family in water use, they could apply for a special block rate for usage above and beyond the average 200 cubic metres.
“We all have a lot of empathy for people who are paying these rates. I haven’t heard anybody up here say ‘let’s increase them’,” said councillor John Brennan.
“I don’t want to go back to those 20 per cent increases again because that was very painful for people.”
Rates for water in the municipality have increased significantly since 2010, when the rate was $1.49/m3.

 

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