What Does The District of Lantzville Pay?
I addressed city council at the Aug. 11 meeting to express some concerns the Nanaimo Ratepayers Association have with the Lantzville Water Agreement.
This is the agreement that was passed by 3 members of our city council on a tie vote of 3-2 with Councillors Greves, Johnstone and Pattje agreeing with the terms as outlined in the staff recommended agreement.
A water connection fee in Nanaimo is $5912.26, which was established in 2008 and was to be reviewed every three years. By now, there should have been two reviews of the fee, and if history is an example you would expect by now the fee would have increased.
This is the same connection fee being offered to 436 Lantzville residents for at least the next five years if they choose to connect to the water being supplied by the city of Nanaimo. I suggested rather than locking in this fee for the next five years, it be tied to the prevailing connection fee established for the city of Nanaimo.
On the matter of how much Lantzville will be paying for Nanaimo water, I asked what the rate would be as the Waterworks Rate Regulation Bylaw is a little confusing showing a maximum rate of $5.86 / 1000 gallons of water as being the highest rate. I was confused as my own water bill indicated I was paying $7.46 / 1000 gallons of water.
During the meeting Mr. Clemens the city finance director stated that the District of Lantzville will pay the highest consumption rate that a city of Nanaimo user would pay. He also said one of the principles of the agreement was that Lantzville should never pay less that what a citizen in Nanaimo pays.
Clarification on the rates .....
When I asked Mr. Clemens for an example of what Lantzville will pay for water he offered an example that if they used 610,000 gallons over a 122 day period they would have a total bill of $3517.14 which means they would effectively be paying $5.765 / 1000 gallons.
Being that I consider myself a typical Nanaimo water user and was charged $72.30 for 9680 gallons or $7.46 / 1000, and I thought Lantzville would not pay less than I would, I was confused by the fact they were being charged $5.765 / 1000 gallons.
When I asked Mr. Clemens for an explanation, he said that because the District of Lantzville was a high volume user they would only be charged $5.765 / 1000 gallons, however if they only used 9680 gallons they too would pay $7.46 / 1000 gallons.
Conclusion
While technically the District of Lantzville is paying at the same 'rate' as a Nanaimo bulk user would, to suggest they are paying the same rate as the typical Nanaimo residence is not accurate.
In the past 44 years every summer water is rationed. Seems strange that a "high volume user" would get a reduced rate. The more you use the more you should be charged to encourage lees waste.
ReplyDeleteHow come that "connection fee" has not seen the same increases as our taxes?
This fee is the charge to connect a water meter to the house's water line at the meter. All the city supplies is a meter and a few fittings.