Thompson city council voted 8-1 in favour of a resolution to transfer nearly $1.4 million in outstanding water bills to property taxes at their April 12 meeting.
Deputy mayor Duncan Wong was the lone vote against the resolution.
As of April 6, there were 918 accounts with outstanding amounts, collectively owing $1,373,454.34 for water and sewer service. Most of these – 575 – are active accounts in the name of residential and commercial property owners, while 285 are active accounts of tenants. There are also 43 inactive tenant accounts and 15 inactive owner accounts with money owing. The largest outstanding bill is $202,082.87.
The number of accounts that owed $92.76 or more as of Dec. 31, 2020 was 963, the highest number in the past six years. The previous high was 878 accounts in 2019. The overall amount owning as of the last day of 2020 was $1,400,040.91, higher than the total of just under $1.3 million the previous year. Prior to 2019, when the amount outstanding was just over a million dollars, the highest total amount owning in the previous three years was about $685,000.
Though they voted in support of the resolution to transfer the amounts to property taxes, several councillors said the water bill collection system is not working well.
“We can’t afford the city not getting $1.4 million,” said Coun. Les Ellsworth. “We’ve got to find a different system or a better system to collect. I’m not impressed whatsoever.”
Wong said he didn’t think people were purposely not paying their bills but that perhaps they can not afford to. He also said that moving the amounts owing from the water utility to property taxes does not solve the problem.
Others said the magnitude of the unpaid bills was concerning.
“It’s very disturbing how little people regard the fact that they have to pay these bills quarterly,” said Coun. Kathy Valentino.
“It is a disturbingly high amount,” agreed Mayor Colleen Smook.
