Dirt builds on Victoria’s street-cleaning fee

City staff have been asked to look into removing street-cleaning fees from the Victoria’s stormwater utility bills.

Victoria has recorded more than 2,000 inquiries about the billing since it started two years ago.

While a majority of the calls related to things such as bill payment — why the stormwater bill is separate from other utility bills — the nature of the utility itself and possible rebates, there was also significant feedback on the streetcleaning fees, according to a staff update to councillors.

Staff said they are still reviewing the practice of issuing stormwater bills separate from other utilities.

While generally supportive, Coun. Geoff Young said he doesn’t understand the link to street cleaning, saying it reduces the credibility of the entire program.

“The fact that there’s a street in front of your house and that cars drive along it and drip oil into the gutters and so forth, that’s a cost that should be borne by automobile users, not by you. The fact that there’s a sidewalk in front of your house is not a benefit to you, it’s a benefit to the public,” Young said.

Young also said addressing the issue of a separate stormwater bill should be a priority.

“To me, it just makes sense that when people get a utility bill, it’s for their garbage, their water and their stormwater. It seems reasonable to me,” he said.

About 25 per cent of the city’s street-cleaning costs are collected through the stormwater utility bill. Street-cleaning costs are included because cleaner streets mean cleaner stormwater washing down drains.

Some councillors suggested that basing street-cleaning charges on total street frontage disproportionately disadvantages owners of corner lots.

Coun. Ben Isitt said collecting street-cleaning fees through general taxation would be “more defensible.”

The current fee structure is unfair to owners of corner lots, he said. “Someone on a corner lot, I think, they are bearing a disproportionate amount of this. If the principle of the program is fair and equitable assessment of fees, I think we have to change the formula somehow,” Isitt said. Coun. Pam Madoff disagreed. “It doesn’t make a difference whether a property has a 200-foot frontage along its actual front property line or whether it’s 100 feet on the front and 100 feet on the side. There’s still advantages to that. There’s still the direct relationship to the street,” she said.