The Public Utilities Board of Manitoba (PUB) approved applications from the City of Thompson June 14 to recover water and wastewater utility operating deficits from 2014 and 2015.
The city applied in 2015 for approval of a deficit of $181,396 for 2014, which it proposed to recover from the utility’s accumulated surplus. The city said the 2014 deficit was due to the amount of public works resources required to repair a large number of water line breaks and for repairs to the wastewater treatment plant when the outfall for the sewage collapsed, resulting in flooding. The city said that it had reallocated a surplus of over $300,000 from the public works labour budget to cover the utility deficit.
In December 2016 the city submitted an application to recover the 2015 deficit of $295,187 from the utility’s accumulated surplus. That year’s deficit, the city said, was due to actual water consumption totalling only 1,314,926 cubic metres, about 20 per cent below the projected consumption of 1,624,625 cubic metres.
The PUB issued a board order in 2009 that said utilities should maintain a working capital surplus equal to 20 per cent of annual expenses. In 2014, the city’s working capital surplus was about $450,000, below the recommended amount of $746,000 based on that year’s working expenses. In 2015, there was no working capital surplus when the recommended amount was about $728,000.
