Water bill soars to $886

Waterloo councillors approve increase of 4.5 per cent for 2018

WATERLOO — Waterloo council is hiking water rates by 4.5 per cent next year, but Mayor Dave Jaworsky can see soaring rates level off, eventually.

Council approved the increase Monday as city hall continues to hike water rates well above inflation. A typical Waterloo household will pay $886 for water in 2018, a cost that has more than doubled since 2006. This cost includes clean drinking water and sewage treatment for 204 cubic metres.

“People should be angry about the cost of their water. It’s expensive,” Coun. Mark Whaley said.

“We need to balance the cost of it with the need to have fresh drinking water,” Jaworsky said.

Governments say they are hiking water rates to help clean the sewage that goes into the Grand River, and to meet regulations.

Council also increased the fee it charges every home to prevent flooding by managing rain. This drainage fee (the city calls it stormwater) has doubled since 2014. A typical Waterloo household will pay $134 in 2018, up another $6.

The city argues that it’s critical to properly manage flooding as the climate changes. “We really have to make sure that our stormwater systems are in good shape,” Jaworsky said.

He said storage ponds should be drained of sediment every decade. “That’s not what we’ve been doing in the past. There’s been a lot of catch-up.”

Residents can see this fee partly reduced by taking steps to improve their drainage.

Monday’s decision effectively raises the tax increase on a typical Waterloo home to 2.4 per cent in 2018, including property taxes and drainage. This is part of an overall tax-and-fee increase now estimated at 13.3 per cent over the four-year term of this council, heading into an election in October.

It’s the biggest four-year tax-and-fee increase imposed by a Waterloo council in the past dozen years. The city says higher spending is paying off as it claims to be meeting or making progress on 60 of 65 initiatives.

Waterloo water costs are forecast to soar to $1,230 for a typical home by 2027. That’s an increase of 39 per cent over nine years on water costs that have more than doubled in the past 12 years.

By 2025, annual water increases are expected to start falling below three per cent. That’s because the city by then will have built up its underfunded water programs to a sustainable level, Jaworsky said.