EPC recommends city freeze water and sewage rates for 2019

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This article was published 18/02/2019 (1886 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A planned 4.7 per cent increase in water and sewer rates for April 1 likely won’t happen.

Mayor Brian Bowman and members of his executive policy committee voted unanimously Tuesday to freeze the water and sewer rates for 2019 at 2018 levels.

While council still has final say on the amount, the freeze is likely to be approved at the Feb. 28 meeting.

The EPC move sets aside a recommendation from the water and waste department, which argued the increase is necessary to cover department operating costs but also the costs associated with the North End sewage plant upgrade.

Coun. Scott Gillingham, chairman of council’s finance committee, proposed the rate freeze, arguing the city needs confirmation from Ottawa and the province on the level of support they will provide for the plant upgrade before setting new water and sewer rates.

“We need assurances, not assumptions, as to what funding levels (Ottawa and the province) they’ll be contributing, if any,” Gillingham told reporters following the EPC meeting.

Moira Geer, director of the water and waste department, said the 4.7 per cent increase was based on an assumption that the province will eventually contribute $300 million towards the $1.8 billion project.

Geer told the committee that future rate increases could be higher if provincial support is less than $300 million.

Earlier at the meeting, EPC gave the green light to the first stage of the plant upgrade, a $408-million project to modernize the plant’s power supply and headworks facilities.

The rest of the work would be split into two separate projects: the $553-million upgrade to the biosolid facilities; and the $828-million upgrade to the nutrient removal facilities.

If council approves, work on the first project would begin in 2020 and be completed in 2025. Starting dates for the other two projects would be evaluated after contracts have been awarded on the first-stage project.

Only the provincial government has committed funds to the project, $34 million that it now wants to divert to covers its share of the Waverley Underpass project.

Upgrades to the plant had been first recommended in 2003 by the Clean Environment Commission, which said the work is necessary to improve the quality of emission discharges into the Red River and eventually ends up in Lake Winnipeg.

The CEC had recommended the project cost — which was unknown at the time — should be cost-shared equally by the three levels of government, but no such commitment was ever made by Ottawa or the province.

Gillingham said city hall has time to secure funding commitments from both levels of government before setting new sewer and water rates.

Bowman later told reporters Winnipeg property taxpayers alone cannot afford to pay for the project, which will be the most expensive in the city’s history.

“We’ve been indicating for some time that it’s absolutely critical that other levels of government provide support for a project of this scale,” Bowman said.

Bowman said water and sewer rates will need to increase at some point.

“It’s reasonable to expect (Winnipeg) ratepayers to pay their fair share,” Bowman said.

aldo.santin@freepress.mb.ca