Chase water users to face increases

Chase residents will soon see a 10 per cent increase in their water rates on their upcoming bill

Chase residents will soon see a 10 per cent increase in their water rates on their upcoming bill, and residents should brace for more in the coming years.

The proposed increases were passed by council Feb. 26 in response to a shortfall in current funding.

“Because the water rates have not been reviewed for quite some time, the village is not collecting enough money through current water rates to pay for the entire costs of operating the current water system,” said Joni Heinrich, chief administration officer.

This increase, she explained, is an attempt to recover more revenue to cover the shortfall the village is seeing in providing the service.

The rate increase will be the first implemented since 2007, at which time the rates were increased by 25 per cent from the 2001 level.

The increase is not expected to be the last in the near future, with councillors already talking about another one set to occur as soon as next year.

“The rates will need to go up again on a fairly regular basis to cover all the costs of the utility,” said Heinrich. “When the new water treatment plant is online, we anticipate the costs being higher than they are to operate our current system. So we anticipate that water rates will have to keep rising, at reasonable intervals, for a few years to cover the costs of water provision.”

Heinrich explains that the new water treatment plant is being built because the village needs to adhere to Interior Health standards for water quality.

“This does not mean that our current water is not good,” she says. “It means that there are new standards for water quality that have to be met and we have to move toward better water treatment to meet those standards.”

The new plant will require additional funding to allocate for the staff required to run the plant. The new plant will also have more disinfection components than the current system has, all of which cost more money to operate, maintain and repair.

In 2010 Martin Dalsin, the former CAO, researched how Chase’s rates measured up to similar communities in the Interior.

His results showed that in 2010, a single family home in Peachland that was an average water user, paid just under $300 a year.

A similar home in Vernon paid just over $500 per year in 2010, a similar home in Mission paid just over $700 per year in 2010, and a similar home in Kamloops paid just under $500 per year in 2010.

In Chase in 2010, a similar home would have paid $137.50 per year.

With the new increases being implemented this month, a single family home, using an average amount of water, will pay $151.25 for the year.

The increases will impact all users: residential, commercial and institutional.

 

There are no changes to parcel taxes, just to the water utility rates.

 

 

Salmon Arm Observer