Water and sewer rates for 2023

Ahead of January 1, 2023, Whitecourt Town Council reviewed the rates and fees for water and sewer. The goal is for both services to be sustainable and for all costs to be recovered. “The proposed rates that we have is that the average customer will see an increase of about .42 cents per month for both water and sewer. For the administration charge, they will see a dollar a month for water. This is based on consuming twenty cubes of water. For sewer, there’s no increase,” explained Judy Barney, Director of Corporate Services, during a recent Policies and Priorities meeting.

Barney explained that an anticipated increase in bulk water sales helped offset the impact of higher rates. “The overall combined increase is about 1.72 percent higher than the previous year and a $1.84 a month. What you’ll see for a total bill is that it will be $76.58 versus $74.74, from the prior year, per month.”

To show where Whitecourt’s rate sits compared to other municipalities of similar size or area, Barney included data comparing Whitecourt against Athabasca, Drayton Valley, Grande Prairie, Westlock, Edson, Barrhead, Valleyview, Hinton and Fox Creek. When comparing water and sewer rates, Whitecourt is the third lowest. The average rate between the communities is $94.23 monthly for water and sewer. At $74.74, Whitecourt is well below the average. When Hinton’s extra infrastructure and capital enhancement fees are added to the mix, Whitecourt would technically be the second cheapest. The highest monthly fee of the nine municipalities was Athabasca which averages $129.42 per month.

On the bulk side, Whitecourt is the cheapest across the board for two of the three categories, 50 cubic metres, 200 cubic metres, and 500 cubic metres. At $315.21 per 50 cubic metres, Whitecourt is $47 cheaper than the next closest municipality, which is Westlock ($362.50). In the 200 cubic metre category, Whitecourt comes in at $1,389.21. The next cheapest community is again Westlock which charges $60 more. The highest charge is in Fox Creek, where users buying 200 cubes pay $2000, over $600 more than Whitecourt.

“We have a practice that we take the percentage increase for water, which is 3.47 percent for 2023, and we apply it to the rates for bulk,” explained Barney. Councillor Lapointe asked why there was an increase in water fees, not sewer fees. “I would’ve guessed that if the water side increased, the sewer side would automatically increase too.”

Barney explained that it had to do with a few things. “They are two separate budgets, and they have different things happening. There is some staffing that is shared across, but you have different functions, and they have different projects that they are doing. For example, on the waste side, you have the hauling of the sludge, but you don’t have that on the water side. Also, there’s a slight difference in the volume forecast. We have some accounts that just receive water and no sewer, so because of that, we don’t have the same volume that we are billing, so that does affect the rate.” Barney said it goes back and forth, with sewer sometimes being higher and water lower.

Lapointe asked if the expected rise for 2023 was due to more industrial use or if it had to do with out-of-town residents who buy water. “Both. We are anticipating more on the bulk side for oil activity. Then we are also seeing the demand increase for bulk sales for commercial and residential,” explained Town CAO Peter Smyl.

Mayor Tom Pickard said he didn’t have a concern with the cost-recovery model used for residential rates but was concerned with the cost of bulk water sales. “We’ve got other town users who are not part of any infrastructure support, and we are giving them the discount, the town rate when we are selling water. It’s a valuable commodity. Our town taxpayers have paid a significant amount for the infrastructure, and I feel that these bulk rates are a gift to people that didn’t pay for any of the infrastructure.”

He said he agreed with the proposed rates for residential users but felt the bulk water needed to come up in price. “I don’t feel that our rates are high enough. I would like to see a substantial increase in the bulk water rates for that purpose on those over the 50 cubic number. Where? I don’t know, but I would certainly be more of an advocate for an increase on that side because of my argument.”

Councillor Derek Schlosser agreed. “I entirely agree with the mayor. I was going to suggest something like that. My question to Peter and Judy is, what’s the sweet spot? If we have too much of an increase, are people not going to buy it, or is it that they are still going to buy it, but they are just going to pay more?”

Smyl said that users in the 50/200 cubic meter ranges are unlikely to travel to get water. “Water is a heavy commodity. For the 500 cubes, they may (travel) because you’re talking about heavy users. Those might want to be looking around checking rates but normally, with the other ones, you’re not.” Smyl said Administration could put together a report showing how many users there are in each of the three categories.

Council passed the fees bylaw during a special meeting on Wednesday, December 21. New rates began on January 1, 2023. Council will look closely at the bulk rates sometime in the new year once they receive the user information.