Average water bill to spike by $30 in 2017

Council will sign off on the city’s eighth consecutive water rate hike above four per cent, boosting the average bill by $30 next year.

But councillors put off a decision on the water department’s request for six new staffers, signalling a looming budget debate over whether to freeze or even shrink the city workforce in 2017.

Dan McKinnon, the city’s new general manager of public works, said Hamilton’s aging infrastructure is driving the annual hikes.

“I don’t think I can overstate the impact of our infrastructure deficit,” McKinnon said, pointing to underground pipes with an average age of 50-plus years and treatment plants preparing for hundreds of millions of dollars in upgrades.

The Woodward Avenue plant is about to undergo “major surgery,” he added, and will be “standing on one foot” for years of construction.

At the same time, McKinnon pointed out even with annual hikes in the $25 range, Hamilton’s water and sewer bills are still lower than almost all comparable cities in southern Ontario. The projected $660 average bill next year, for example, is still nowhere close to the $1,000-plus bills in Kitchener and London.

Mayor Fred Eisenberger urged councillors to support the ongoing water and sewer revamp.

“We can’t be in denial about our infrastructure,” he said, pointing to estimates the city falls behind by another $200 million in deferred capital spending each year. “We have a massive deficit.”

Coun. Sam Merulla said it makes sense to spend more on a “life-sustaining” infrastructure like drinking water pipes and sewage treatment. He suggested some families spend more than $800 a year on “soda pop” — a number he later admitted was based on American statistics found online — so a $660 bill for water “is not that bad.”

Only one councillor, Tom Jackson, voted against the 4.85-per-cent rate increase, arguing he was concerned in principle with a hike twice the rate of inflation.

Other councillors supported the increase but warned such budget bumps can’t go on forever.

“Over five or 10 years, it’s not sustainable,” said Coun. Chad Collins, who also successfully put forward an amendment to defer a decision on whether to allow new hires.

He followed up with a motion asking the city to report back with options to cut labour costs after an operating budget presentation showed the average tax impact without cuts sits at 5.6 per cent, or an extra $187 on the average tax bill.