For the first time since Thompson residents started paying for water and sewer services based on metered usage in 2011, rates will not be going up come Jan. 1 if the Public Utilities Board of Manitoba (PUB) approves the city’s request to extend the 2019 rates for an additional year.
Council unanimously approved a resolution authorizing city administration to request extending 2019 rates at a special council meeting held Dec. 19.
Approving or denying the request will be up to the PUB but the city’s chief financial officer Jenny Krentz said the current rates should provide enough revenue to cover operations of the water and sewer utility for the upcoming year.
“This would allow us to keep these rates for 2020 which we estimated to be sufficient to cover 2020 expenses and then we would prepare a rate study in 2020 for the years 2021 to 2023,” said Krentz.
City administration wants to wait to prepare a rate study until they have taken over operation of the new sewage treatment plant from the contractors who oversaw its construction, so they have a better idea of how much electricity, supplies and wages will be required to run it on an ongoing basis. Thew new plant was expected to be commissioned earlier this year, but issues with the biological processes used to treat the sewage have not been resolved.
Though all councillors present voted in favour of the resolution, they did have some concerns.
“I was a little concerned,” said deputy mayor Les Ellsworth. “Can we really operate on the 2019 rates? I wouldn’t like us to be behind the eight ball because we didn’t do an increase based on the fact we have a bigger plant and everything we do, whether it be wages, whether it be supplies, there’s always an increase. If it does come back that we’re under, good, but if we’re over that becomes another problem.”
Coun. Jeff Fountain asked what data from the sewage treatment plant is required for the rate study and how long of a period it is required for in order to produce an accurate expense forecast.
“We will have at least a few months of operating the wastewater treatment plant [before submitting the rate study] to determine what those costs are of the consumables, of hydro, of any contractual services that we require to run the plant, so we will have that information available,” said Krentz.
“Until the plant is up and running properly we can’t determine the cost to do the proper rate fro three years,” said city manager Anthony McInnis.
Coun. Kathy Valentino asked if getting an answer on the rate extension would take more or less time than it takes when a rate study is submitted.
“From my understanding, putting in a full rate study is a longer process,” said Krentz, with a wait of about 52 weeks for a decision.
Current water and sewer rates include a minimum quarterly charge, which includes 14 cubic metres of water, of $92.76. The rate per cubic metre of water above the quarterly minimum is $3.42 and sewage rates are $1.51 per cubic metre. Since wastewater volumes are calculated based on the number of cubic metres of water customers consume, the combined rate is $4.93 per cubic metre of water consumed.
