Water and wastewater budget gets final council approval

Council has officially approved the City of North Bay's 2023 water and wastewater budget, and along with it, the associated rates.

The 2023 water and wastewater budget comes in at $24,980,340, up from $24,259,248 in 2022, with a levy increase of budget increase of $721,092 or 2.97 per cent over 2022.

A 5.53 per cent increase projected early on in the process would have seen yearly bills increase by approximately $62 (or $5.23 per month) for the average residential customer. The use of additional reserves will drop that annual increase by $28 and reduce the levy increase to 2.97 per cent. 

A residential customer that consumes an average of 14 cubic metres of water will see a yearly increase to their water bill of $34.32 over 2022 or $2.86 per month this year, effective retroactively to Jan. 1. The average annual residential bill in 2023 will be $1,082.28 for a household consuming 168 cubic metres of water annually.

The 2023 budget provides for the ongoing treatment and delivery of water and wastewater services, including regulatory compliance and continued investment in infrastructure renewal and replacement. The budget deliberations incorporated discussions about significant inflationary increases in the cost of chemicals, fuel, utilities, and insurance.

See related: Water bills rising but use of reserves will lessen impact

The initial water and wastewater budget presented by staff called for the use of $205,000 in capital reserves but in budget deliberations earlier this month, members of council and financial department staff worked together to further reduce the impact of the levy increase from a starting point of 5.53 per cent over 2022 to the 2.97 per cent they agreed upon with the application of an additional $619,600 from reserves in this year's budget. The reserves used in the 2023 water and wastewater budget will total $824,600.

“Through the use of reserves, this budget offers ratepayers some relief, while ensuring that we provide our community with clean, safe drinking water and that we continue to invest in critical infrastructure,” said Deputy Mayor and Budget Chief Maggie Horsfield.

See: the revised staff report, the final calculated rates, and final sample invoice.

The residential fixed meter rates will be $25.80 this year, up $0.07 over 2022. The large six-inch fixed rate will increase by $3.46 per month. The variable rate will increase to $1.44/cubic metre from $1.42. The sanitary surcharge will increase to 96.23 per cent from 91.47 per cent.

Coun. Mark King reluctantly cast his vote to pass the budget but did voice concerns about the use of the CPI (consumer price index) to compile the budget and noted the budgetary pressures caused by a 7.1 per cent increase in employee fringe benefits and pension plans, totalling in excess of $300,000.

Despite King's protestations, Coun. Tanya Vrebosch cast the sole vote against, in keeping with her stance that a hardship program was an option worth exploring to soften the blow of the increase for seniors and other lower-income families and individuals. Vrebosch has also been cautioning her colleagues about the future financial impacts of artificially paying down the levy by using reserves.

There are approximately 16,600 water/wastewater customers in the community and the City is responsible for more than 574 kilometres of water (304) and wastewater (270) mains, the operations of the wastewater treatment facility on Memorial Drive and water treatment plant on Lakeside Drive, 17 sewage lift stations.

Council also directed staff to undertake a review of the 50 per cent fixed and 50 per cent variable and the results will be brought forward to council for consideration in mid-2023.

See also: Mayor leads push for capital policy review in budget meeting

Also looming large over the budget process is an impending capital policy review.

“Council is interested in looking at our capital policy on a long-term basis,” Chirico recently said. “The capital plan has been in place since 2005. There have been some minor tweaks to it. Is it going to address our future needs? Those were times of very low inflation and interest rates. We’re not in that same spectrum and it warrants a full review.”