Harder says Darouze ‘wimped out’ on water vote
A rural councillor “absolutely wimped out” in voting against a lower stormwater fee increase for 2018, a council colleague said Wednesday.
Barrhaven Coun. Jan Harder skewered Osgoode Coun. George Darouze after a council meeting at which politicians voted 20-3 to increase the stormwater fee by five per cent in 2018, rather than the 13 per cent recommended by staff. Councillors Jeff Leiper and Michael Qaqish also voted against it.
Harder, who explained how councillors worked behind the scenes in recent days to find a compromise on the stormwater fee, was steamed that Darouze was one of the councillors who voted against the reduced rate.
“There’s no good reason why he couldn’t. None,” Harder said. “If you don’t want to play a leadership role in the city, then don’t show up here. Don’t come into this space because this is where the leaders of Ottawa are.”
Darouze said he couldn’t even stomach a five-per-cent increase to the stormwater fee, citing council’s target on property tax increases.
“I always support a two-per-cent increase in everything we do in this city and I didn’t have enough time to discuss it with my community,” Darouze said.
Darouze said he understands there’s infrastructure that needs money, but he’s not convinced rural residents in particular should have to pay 13 per cent more or even five per cent more in 2018.
“This is a new tax and new fee we implemented last year and it’s impacting our community in a different way,” Darouze said.
“We went out to the public. We told our residents that we should pay our fair share and contribute to the infrastructure, and we sold it to them, we worked with them. They aren’t happy about it but we went out and educated them and talked to them constantly about it, and right now for me to start increasing (the fee) five per cent in the next four years, I don’t think that’s fair.”
The stormwater fee is especially contentious in rural communities where properties aren’t connected to the municipal water and sewer systems. Until recently, those properties hadn’t been paying for stormwater infrastructure since those fees were plugged into water and sewer bills. Now those unconnected properties are paying stormwater fees on their tax bills.
The rural councillors were stunned earlier this month to see a plan to raise the fee each year by higher rates than the drinking water and sewer rates.
The environment committee didn’t even vote on the recommendations last week, choosing instead to punt the report to council as some councillors tried to find another option for the proposed stormwater increases.
To get the stormwater fee increase down to five per cent, council voted to borrow an extra $3.1 million and reduce spending slightly in 2018. Mayor Jim Watson called it a “reasonable and respectful compromise.”
However, it’s a solution only for 2018, which, conveniently, is an election year. The city still projects annual stormwater fee increases between 10 per cent and 13 per cent from 2019 through 2027.
Rideau-Goulbourn Coun. Scott Moffatt said it’s the best solution to avoid a large increase to the stormwater fee for 2018.
With the stormwater fee, the city “separated it out and jacked the rate” without offering a good explanation to residents, he said.
Moffatt, who’s the chair of council’s agriculture and rural affairs committee, said he challenged staff over how much money the city needs to spend on stormwater infrastructure.
Council also approved projected increases to water and sewer rates over the next 10 years.
The water rate is to increase between two and four per cent annually, while the sewer rate is expected to increase between three and five per cent.