It looks like water service parcel taxes, user fees and metered usage fees are going up in the Sunshine Coast Regional District (SCRD) this year.
SCRD directors recommended upping rates during their Jan. 14 infrastructure services committee meeting after receiving a staff report that said the rate increases were necessary to sustain desired service levels and keep up with targets set out in the Comprehensive Regional Water Plan (CRWP).
The CRWP lays out a strategy that balances water conservation and water supply expansion to service users of the regional water service area for the next 25 years.
Included in the regional water service area are all municipal water systems from Langdale to Earls Cove, with the exception of North and South Pender Harbour, and Hopkins Landing.
There are two primary sources of funding for the regional water system, which are parcel taxes and user fees.
Staff recommended both go up annually for the next five years to offset costs and save for future big-ticket expenditures laid out in the CRWP, like the Chapman Creek water treatment plant expansion, estimated to cost $6.4 million and scheduled to take place in 2020.
Projected rate increases for 2016 are 1.17 per cent for residential parcel taxes, 3.71 per cent for residential user fees and 1.33 per cent for metered usage fees.
For the average single family home that equates to about $3 more in 2016 for parcel taxes (for properties up to and including one acre in size), about $9 more for residential user fees and about one cent more per cubic metre of water, for metered water customers.
While rates are projected to increase on all fronts annually, the exact increases can’t be nailed down just yet.
“Realizing that rate determination is a dynamic process and given the number of inputs that impact the modelling tool, it is advised that the financial model be updated annually and the financial plan only be amended to reflect the recommended percentage increase for 2016,” a staff report on the subject said.
Directors didn’t have any discussion at the committee level before accepting the recommended rates for 2016. The decision will have to come back to a regular board meeting to be formally adopted.
Pender Harbour
Directors also accepted rate increases of four per cent for the North and South Pender Harbour water service areas during their Jan. 14 infrastructure services committee meeting.
The four per cent increase affects parcel taxes, user fees and metered rates and a staff report noted the total increase will amount to approximately $21 per single family residential dwelling in 2016 in the North Pender water service area.
In the South Pender Harbour water service area the increase will amount to about $26 more for a single-family dwelling.
The increases are meant to help fund future system and capital upgrades for the two areas.
In North Pender Harbour, about $1.8 million is needed for further system upgrades (primarily to the water distribution network) over the next eight years while South Pender Harbour needs about $3.8 million for capital upgrades over the next 10 years, including improvements to the Frances Peninsula reservoir, replacement of the Dogwood reservoir and increasing the size of several water main sections in the system.
The committee recommendation to increase water fees in Pender Harbour will also come to a future board meeting for ratification.
