Chase residents continue to protest water and sewer rates in the village, with a local senior’s residence the latest group to protest the flat rate being charged.
Guy Ramsay, president of the Sun Valley Housing Society attended the April 23 council meeting to ask that the base rate of 60 cubic metres be lowered to accommodate those who don’t use that much. He pointed out that at 60 m3 per unit, of which there are 48, it would be 2,880 m3 per billing cycle. However, in the last cycle from Oct. 1 to Dec. 31 they only used 975 m3.
“I really believe you should be charged what you use or consume, and not for anything else. We don’t mind paying the current cubic metre rate increase, but not the flat rate,” Ramsay told council. “Imagine going to a gas station and instead of just putting in one litre of fuel, you get charged automatically with four litres.
“So are you telling us that it’s OK now to have our taps on all the time to use the water we’re being charged?”
He said they do expect rate increases over time, if they’re fair and affordable, but that this is taking advantage of seniors, adding that most residents at the complex rely solely on CPP and Old Age Security pensions.
At the April 9 meeting, Coun. Fred Torbohm put forward a motion to lower the flat rate to 30 m3, but it was defeated in 2-2 split vote. After this meeting, however, chief financial officer Joni Heinrich said “staff is working behind the scenes of the issue” and will bring a report to council later in May.
“We will be accelerating the meter fixes/replacements and after the majority of meters are working again, we will have better information to take another look at the rates.”
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