Following a lengthy debate Wednesday afternoon, Comox council approved a flat water rate and a metered rate for the Town, allowing residents with meters the option to choose either rate for their water this year.Council settled on an increase of $12 to the flat rate, raising it to $315 for a single-family residence in 2012.For the optional metered rate, council passed a flat rate per month of $17.50 for the first 12 cubic meters, plus a rate of $0.88 per cubic meter over 12 cubic meters, for the 1,300 metered homes/stratas within the town.”This whole thing is so convoluted and is so silly to begin with,” said Coun. Tom Grant. “If you look at our water usage, people who are on the meters, it shows you exactly what I said two years ago, what I said last year, and what I’m going to say again — we are not the water pigs that the (Comox Valley) Regional District led us to believe,” he noted.Grant added he believes Comox citizens don’t use a lot of water, and now the Town must find money to run the water system.”We need X number of dollars to run this system. If these people are paying far less, other people have to start paying far more for that loss of revenue because this is a utility; we’ve got costs associated with this. How fair is that to the people who don’t have a water meter, and we don’t have any money in our capital plan for water meters?” he said.Coun. Patti Fletcher argued the limits of water available, and compared the Town to others across Vancouver Island.”I don’t think anyone called a Comox citizen a water pig. I think what we saw were looming infrastructure costs, a water licence that had been limited by the province. There is not unlimited water,” she noted. “We have to look to the future. We’ve got extensive infrastructure costs coming, water is going to become more expensive, there’s a fairness principal, and I look all over the Island and I see every community … they are all water metered.””We’re not reinventing the wheel. I think we’re just catching up,” she added.Grant argued he takes issue not directly with meters themselves, but with the money spent on them.”It’s the money. It’s the millions of dollars that it’s going to cost us to water meter everybody when we don’t have a water problem,” he said.Grant added water consumption in the Town is below the permitted water allowance determined by the provincial water licence. He said peak water consumption is during the summer months.”We’re not exceeding our water licence. We have in the past — that’s true. All we have to do is bring that water usage down in June, July, August and September. And you don’t need water meters to do that.”Coun. Maureen Swift supported the motion on the principal of giving those with meters a choice as to which option would offer the most savings, although noted she didn’t believe the proposed metered rate offered a significant savings.Coun. Hugh MacKinnon also supported the motion, and hoped to review the results of water meter rates in the future.”My view is that with a pilot project, you don’t make a rash decision based on one year … the intentions were good intentions, it was looking at the long-term,” he said. “I think it’s wise to leave people with a choice, and to continue with the pilot project.”The motion passed with Couns. Swift, Fletcher, MacKinnon and Barbara Price voting in favour, while Ken Grant and Tom Grant voted against.photos@comoxvalleyrecord.com

Comox Valley Record