WK water rate hike is a real tsunami

My friend is an accountant. He didn’t sleep last night when he found out what the new proposed water rate hike would cost him.

For Lakeview residents, the amount is increasing from $360 in 2017 to $632, $724 and eventually $908 in 2021. He pointed out to me that’s an increase of 75 per cent, then 25 per cent each year for another three years.

That’s the published median charge, basic plus a little yard watering. What does that mean to most residents of Lakeview Heights? For a yard with fruit trees, maybe a cedar hedge, vegetable garden, in other words more than lawn watering: my accountant friend’s water rates have gone from $292 in 2010 and will be $1,600 by 2021. Almost the cost of his property taxes.

We need clean water, it’s a basic right, but I question why we are paying up front for a project, when a much fairer proposal would be to borrow the money and spread the repayment over the life of the treatment plant.

After all, that was the proposal for the City Hall project, why not this?

And what happens when the project is paid for, as it will be by 2021? Are we still paying those incredible increases so the city can build a huge surplus?

I’m all in favour of water conservation, but for some homes, the cost of xeriscaping a big yard is huge. Its possible to plan this with new builds, but who can afford to replace existing things like cedar hedge, or a grassed area with expensive landscaping?

Lakeview Heights has families and retirees on fixed incomes. It seems only fair to spread the cost of the project over a number of years by borrowing the money. It would also be fair to the rest of West Kelowna residents who will be helping to pay for this project.

When the residents of West Kelowna voted for a water treatment plant on the Citizens Survey, I’m sure it would have been a different result if they had been told up front that could end up costing as much as $1,600 per year.