Utility fee increases on the horizon

EDL holding the line, it tells City’s finance committee

Public Utilities and Economic Development Lethbridge had an opportunity to present their draft fouryear budgets before the City’s finance committee last week.

EDL CEO Trevor Lewington said EDL’s funding proposal will be flat for the next four years, as part of EDL’s intention was to align with a council request for organizations to find efficiencies in their operations while looking for enhancement opportunities. As such, there are four projects EDL has also identified as priorities in the coming cycle, largely to develop business opportunities foreign and domestic.

Lewington said due to the nature of the work done at EDL, he felt confident with at least the core request for funding being approved.

“I would be surprised if they didn’t at least approve the core budget,” he said. “The new initiatives might be challenging just because they have given direction across the board to minimize new asks.

“There is a real effort to try and mitigate any tax increases, and find some efficiencies in the system.”

The four-year operating budget proposed by the Water and Wastewater Utilities department would see no major projects planned and modest increases of two per cent per year for water and a two per cent increase for wastewater in 2019 followed by three years of 2.5-per-cent increases.

Doug Kaupp, Water, Wastewater and Stormwater manager with the City, called the increases “modest to maintain current service levels.”

Waste and Recycling could also see regular increases for some of their programs over the next four years with the inclusion of the Curbside Recycling Program which will add $7 per month to residential waster collection beginning in 2019.

Waste program fees, and waste reduction charges will see an increase in 2018 but no further increases for the rest of the cycle.

Commercial collection could see a four per cent increase in each of the next four years.

Landfill tipping fees could also change with increases coming in mixed solid waste by $30 per tonne by 2020.

The Electric Utility is looking to increase their fees in the next cycle, in part to a 15 per cent for transmission access fees. The access fees had been previously lowered in order to pay off fees owed back to customers in 2014 and 2015.

Transmission Access Fees are regulated by the Alberta Utilities Commission and represent the single largest pressure on the overall budgeted revenue requirement to operate the electric utility.

Distribution Access Fees represent costs associated with the Lethbridge distribution system and are forecast to increase by one per cent in 2019 followed by increases in each of the next four years.