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Water rule changes bring higher fees but no monthly billing

Dec 10, 2013 | 5:42 AM

Prince Albert residents will be able to pay their water bills each month, but they won’t be receiving them each month, after council voted to approve changes to the city’s water and sewer bylaw.

Residents will have a number of payment options available to them, including : Making pre-payments, submit scheduled payments for their water bill through their bank, provide post-dated cheques or sign up for the water utility’s pre-payment plan. They can also choose to continue paying their quarterly bills as usual.

The city will accept payment arrangement plans from customers who have usually paid their bills in full at the end of the current three-month cycle. Additionally, the city’s administration is working on a monthly payment program that mirrors the Tax Instalment Payment Plan Service (TIPPS), specifically designed for water billing.

Included in the changes are a number of fee hikes, which led Coun. Lee Atkinson to cast his vote against amending the bylaw.

“Well, I think there already is interest and penalties to take care of those arrears, you know, people not paying their bills. We already charge out a fee, in some cases, those fees are doubling, and I don’t think it’s right,” he said after Monday’s council meeting.

The rate for re-connection between Nov. 1 and May 31 will rise from $50 to $150. The fee for tagging a door belonging to a resident who had non-sufficient funds (NSF) when trying to pay or an overdue account, will rise from $10 to $15, instead of the recommended $20. Also, anyone looking to see their water use record will have to pay $10 to see the log.

Atkinson likened the latter to charging a telephone user to see their long-distance call record when they request it.

“I have to pay $10 to see how you got my bill? I don’t think that’s right, and I don’t know what other utility in the world would say, ‘if you actually want to see the details, you have to pay us some more money.’”

When it comes to the fee increases in overall, Atkinson said the water utility already takes in hundreds of thousands of dollars in interest and penalties. “Adding these increments onto these other user fees, it’s just a back door way of, you know, further taxation on the water people.”

The fee increases were something that Coun. Don Cody also took issue with, and said the city would be trying to get money from the poorest of the poor.

“The reason that people don’t pay their bills is not because they’re all derelicts. They’re not. It’s some people just can’t pay. And as a result, we decide to cut their water off and turn it back on, and now we’re really going to hit them hard…”

But acting city manager Joe Day said the financial services department tries to work with people who are having trouble paying their bills, giving them proper notice before doors are tagged.

“Where necessary, we make payment arrangements, which … give people an opportunity to catch up if they had something occur before we go proceed to shutting anyone’s water off. And certainly the fees, the higher fees during the winter months, that’s for temporary shut-offs that are requested by the property owners so they can do work inside their house during that winter month period.”

He said the city’s staff experiences more equipment breakage at in colder temperatures, and said the charge is necessary to make that up.

Looking ahead

Automatic rate increases will kick in 2014 for water use. Back in February, council approved a multi-year rate increase for the utility. 

But Atkinson would like to see changes made to the water utility bills, which would see cost of delivering water to users into the fees. He said then everyone would pay exactly the same, and users would pay on the amount they use.

He doesn’t think it’s right that people who are away from home and come back months later return to high water bills.

“Yes, I do know that you have a telephone and if you don’t use the telephone, you still get a monthly charge. But again, you know, it’s more, you know, a lot of the water bill now is not on how much water you’re using, but is on all these other charges.”

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames