(Alison Sandstrom/paNOW Staff)

By Alison Sandstrom

Unpaid bills

Council looks to increase utility deposit to $250

May 26, 2020 | 5:05 PM

Faced with over $1 million dollars in unpaid water bills, the City of Prince Albert has decided to put the onus on tenants not landlords.

Pending final approval by city council, the deposit required to open a new utility account will increase from $150 to $250. City administration is recommending the move following consultation with Prince Albert landlords.

“Since we’ve had that meeting, we’ve had landlords working with us on overdue accounts,” Director of Finance Cheryl Tkachuk told councillors at Monday night’s executive meeting. “And I’d like to continue this relationship as we go forward.”

In the past, the city has considered a number of options for dealing with unpaid water bills, including putting them on landlords’ property taxes. A city report indicated three out of five Saskatchewan municipalities surveyed by administration used that approach, including Humboldt, Martensville and Saskatoon. Meanwhile Meadow Lake does not allow utility bills to be in the tenants’ name at all. Understandably, the idea of making tenants unpaid bills the responsibility of property owners is not popular among landlords.

“I like the $250 deposit,” said Coun. Blake Edwards. “I know that I’ve had several conversations with landlords in the city that say, ‘we’re out of the business if you try to put this on us.’”

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Coun. Terra Lennox-Zepp, however, questioned both the idea of increasing the deposit and the timing of the change.

“The landlords in Saskatoon are not out of business…obviously there is a way that these cities are doing it,” she said.

“We have to consider where we are right now in terms of a pandemic. We’re talking about people’s water, new water accounts, and there are people in our community that can’t afford the extra $100.”

Lennox-Zepp wanted to delay the increase until after the provincial COVID-19 State of Emergency was over. The idea was roundly rejected by her colleagues who pointed to the fact that because the increase would only be applied to new water accounts, not people moving to a new location within the city, it would likely affect very few people in the coming months.

“During a pandemic, I’m not sure how many new people are moving into the city of Prince Albert,” said Coun. Dennis Ogrodnick. “My guess is probably next to none. And so even if it was 1, 2, 10 people, do we change an entire policy to accommodate that small number of people? For me, common sense says no.”

Meanwhile the general manager of one of the city’s main providers of affordable housing told paNOW she opposes increasing the utility deposit, but doesn’t want to see landlords made responsible for unpaid bills either.

“There are people that are going to find it very difficult if it’s raised even $100,” Prince Albert Community Housing Society’s Linda Boyer said.

She explained with the change to monthly billing, as long as the city follows up promptly on overdue accounts and shuts off water if necessary, the existing $150 deposit should cover any losses.

Council is set to approve increasing the utility deposit to $250 at a future council meeting. Another proposed change will see tenants required to give their landlords access to the app that monitors water usage as a condition of opening a water account.

Meanwhile city administration say they expect the number of unpaid water bills to climb over the summer, with water shut-offs for accounts in arrears and late payment penalties suspended because of COVID-19.

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alison.sandstrom@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @alisandstrom