Smart meter installations began in Prince Albert in April of 2019. (File Photo/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Smart meter

Water shut-offs won’t be halted

May 20, 2020 | 2:00 PM

The City of Prince Albert will continue water shut offs for properties that have not had a new water meter installed.

At Tuesday night’s meeting, council rejected a motion that would have seen the practice suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic. While one councillor is calling the decision a public safety issue, the Mayor and the majority of councillors say residents who still haven’t completed the installation have no excuse.

“They’ve had 13 months to do it, they haven’t,” Dionne told paNOW after the meeting. “So do I give them another month? Another six months? Another year? At some point you have to call a dead date. It’s done.”

Only 158 homes and businesses, one per cent of all properties in the city have not yet had a smart meter installed.

City administration said the reasons for the holdouts are varied. In some cases staff haven’t been able to get ahold of residents either by phone or by tagging the home, others say they are self-isolating and don’t want to allow anyone in the house.

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Dionne suggested that in the case of some commercial properties, owners may not want to allow staff in to change the meter because they have an illegal bypass line and are accessing free city water.

“It’s frustrating, I wanted [installations] done by October or November,” Director of Finance Cheryl Tkachuk told paNOW after the meeting.

Tkachuk couldn’t give a exact number of properties that had had their water disconnected because they didn’t have smart meter, but confirmed shut-offs had occurred.

The city plans to begin monthly billing in mid-June, she explained. While the smart meters provide automatic readings, old meters require staff to visit the property to manually read them. Although Tkachuck said they currently have the staffing capacity to continue manually reading the remaining old meters, it’s simply easier for everyone if all properties have smart meters.

“To me I look at it more as a benefit for the resident because they’ve got day to day, actually hour by hour readings,” she explained. “So the old lady that had the $1,000 water bill in a three month period and didn’t know she had a leak, you’ll know right away.”

Additionally Tkachuk said the city doesn’t want to have to repair or replace the equipment used for manual readings.

Meanwhile Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp, who moved the motion to suspend the shut-offs said she’s concerned by council’s decision.

“I am extremely disappointed that city council voted to continue to shut water off during a pandemic where we know that proper hygiene and access to water improves the safety for all of us in our community,” she told paNOW after the meeting.

“There was absolutely no reason provided for us to continue this, we’re not losing any money, we still bill people either way, the revenue is still the same.”

Anyone who does not have a smart meter is asked to contact the city immediately to arrange an installation appointment.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom