Athabasca County is planning to raise its water and sewer rates for residents in pursuit of total cost recovery for those services.
The county’s budget and finance committee, made up of council members, unanimously approved a motion by Coun. Warren Griffin during its Jan. 10 meeting to recommend to county council several water rates increases.
These increases include raising the price for each cubed metre of water from $3.27 to $3.37 in Colinton; $4.32 to $4.71 in Grassland and Wandering River; and from $4.40 to $4.71 at residential truck fills. Rural subdivisions would remain at $4.71 and non-residential truck fills would remain at $9.00 under the proposed 2018 rates.
County manager Ryan Maier said the county has been moving toward complete cost recovery for water and sewer services. He added that county council needed to decide whether it would continue to subsidize water services or try for full cost recovery.
“That has to be determined by council, whether that’s what we’re hoping to achieve or not,” Maier said.
The rate increase will require approval by county council before coming into effect, which has not yet occurred.
Maier noted that water and sewer services operated at 90 per cent cost recovery in Athabasca County for the first time in 2016, which is also forecasted for 2017.
If the rate increases are approved to a Jan. 1 timeline, Maier said the combined water and sewer figures would amount to complete cost recovery. However, he added that council probably would not want to approve the increases retroactively.
Coun. Travais Johnson said though he does not like having to raise rates, the county could not continue to pay for water use in the way it has.
“We can’t subsidize water. I can see the increase being good,” Johnson said.
Maier said if you include the local improvement levy that Colinton pays for having brought in the water system, the water rates are very similar between Colinton, Grassland and Wandering River. He added although the percentage increased for the proposed rates is nine per cent in Wandering River and Grassland, that only amounts to approximately three dollars over the course of a year.
“On a percentage basis that might appear high but again, when you look at the overall dollar values, that’s not much,” Maier said.
Athabasca County’s budget and finance committee recommended increases to the price of county cemetery burial plots.
The committee unanimously voted during its Jan. 10 meeting to recommend county council raise the residential cost for cemetery plots by $50 for a total of $200, as well as raising the non-residential cost by $500 to a total of $1,000.
Coun. Christi Bilsky said based on comparable municipalities, Athabasca County has one of the lowest rates for cemetery plots. She added that considering the value proposition of the county maintaining the cemeteries, raising the prices for a plot is reasonable.
“Once someone is buried there we have to pay it forever more. $150 to cut the grass for the next 150 years is pretty cheap,” Bilsky said, referring to the current price for a resident cemetery plot.
Committee chair Larry Armelt said the cost for the plots has not raised appreciatively, despite the cost for the county to maintain the facilities.
Coun. Warren Griffin said the emphasis for the increase should be put more on non-residents, considering the county should only provide cheap cemetery plots as a service for locals.
“Why aren’t we charging $1,000 or $2,000 for a non-resident? I don’t care if they have to pay through the nose if they want to be buried here, because they’re not local anyway,” Griffin said.
The fee change requires approval from county council to go into effect, which has not yet occurred.
