If you conserve water, you could soon pay more under Ottawa's new flat rate

A long-awaited report from City of Ottawa staffrecommends changes to howthe city charges for drinkingwater, takes awaysewage, anddealswith water from big storms.

While the city promises that most households will see hardly any change on their bills andthose whouse very little water will see their bills go up, those whoconsume a lot ofwater could pay less.

That's because the amount charged on water billswill no longer be based solely on how much water a home or business consumes.

The city wants to introduce a fixed cost to the billbecause staff say, for the most part, the cost of operating andmaintaining the water system doesn't vary with the amount ofwater used.

Staff also propose phasing ina stormwater feeof about$27to $53peryearon the property taxes ofthosewhoare on private wells and septic systems anddon't pay water bills.

Save water, possiblypay more

The city's auditor recommended the city introduce a fixed portion to waterrates back in 2008, said deputy city treasurer IsabelleJasmin, because it's a best practice.Now with automated meter reading technology, the city can do something more sophisticated with rates than simply charge for water used, she said.

"This exercise wasn't about raising more money," added Coun. David Chernushenko, who chairs the environment committee.

Instead, it's about distributingthe costs of running thesystem more fairly, he said.

But with mostOttawa householdsset to pay$17.50 per month for water and sewer costs, no matter what, the new system creates the counterintuitive situation where people who use very little water could end up paying more.

For instance, the city laid out a scenario in which a single person in a small urban house, who uses fivecubic metres of water a month now pays $20 on her bill. Under the new rates, she would pay $33.

But Chernushenko said council is still keen to have people conserve water.

"It's not by any means as if this is being done on the backs of the conservers, it just does mean that they will be paying a little bit more through that fixed charge."

Packed publicmeetings

But it was the idea of being charged for stormwater that led rural residents with private wells and septic systems to turnout in droves to public consultations held last March and April.

• City asks residents to wade in on water, sewer bill changes

Of the more than 700 people whoshowed up at eight consultations, ninety per cent were rural residents whodidn'tpay water bills. The session in West Carleton even hit capacity and several dozen people had to be turned away.

The city says everyone benefits from the infrastructure that deals with runoff frombig storms, but itheard many rural property owners describe how theirlarge yardsactuallyabsorbrain, said Chernushenko.

That's why itsettled on charging rural homeowners a discounted stormwater fee $4.44 per month for detached and semi-detached houses, compared with $8.88 for homes connected to city water and will phase in that fee on property tax bills over four years.

"We wrote it, rewrote in a way that could beas fair as possible, that could take into account all the exceptions people brought to our attention," said Chernushenko of the new rate proposal.

"You can never get it entirely perfect, but it's as close to it as we could have come up with," he said.

But Rebecca McCurdy, who owns a home in Dunrobin, and pays to maintain her own well and septic system, still thinks rural homeowners should not have to start paying for stormwater something she sees as aproblem in urban areas, with itsparking lots and dense housing.

Debate to take place Oct. 18

Citizens can make presentations on Oct. 18, when councillorsgather to debate the new rate structure at a meeting of the environment committee.

If the reportreceives full council's approval, the new water billing systemwould roll outin early 2018.

Thisoverhaul of rates is the first to happensince amalgamation 15 years ago.The report was originally supposed to come out in May, but city staff spent the summer working on it, and take into account the large amount of public feedback they received.