Williams Lake will be raising water rates for 2025, something the city hasn't done since 2009.
City council passed the change to the current rate at their regular meeting at city hall on Aug. 13, and specified it was to "have funds available for future capital and operating expenses during the Water Treatment Plant construction, and to operate the plant once constructed."
The increase of 13 per cent will mean about $37 per year for most residential property owners. Mayor Surinderpal Rathor said the increase is necessary to ensure the city is prepared when construction begins on a new water treatment plant for the city to deal with the elevated levels of manganese in the city's water.
The water treatment plant was estimated at a cost of $10 million in 2019 and the council at the time chose not to build it, hoping to secure grants. The current estimate for the water treatment plant is $25.3 million, and Rathor said by the time it is built, the cost may be even higher.
As the city approved a sanitary sewer inspection later in the council meeting, Rathor pointed to the unexpectedly high cost of the bid for the work as an example of why the city needs to increase water rates to be prepared.
Rathor later said he does not want the city to have to borrow if they can avoid it, especially at current interest rates.
"I'm trying to bring the debt down," he said.
Rathor conceded the increase will impact industry and commercial users differently.
Commercial businesses in Williams Lake are normally required to have water meters installed and pay a rate based on usage. Buildings with over four units not owned individually are also charged differently, with the owner of a multi-apartment dwelling provided the option of paying per unit or having a meter installed and paying by usage.
Councillor Scott Nelson provided the sole opposition to the rate increase. Nelson owns more than 30 properties in the city, but said his opposition to the increase isn't about its impact on his many rental and commercial properties.
"The tenants pay the increase, not Scott Nelson," he said.
Nelson said the water rate increase is another in many increases for the taxpayer the city has approved for the next year.
"As the former finance chair I stand very proud of the fact we didn’t increase [the water rate] for eight years," said Nelson.
He said his preference instead is to seek out investment into the community in order to increase the tax base, citing examples like the loan the city took out to support Walmart coming into the community and to develop a new commercial area on South Lakeside.
He said it is also not the time to increase the water rate while the single largest water user in the city, Atlantic Power, the biomass power plant, is in a precarious position. Atlantic Power served their notice to BC Hydro the power plant would close next January if their current contract did not change due to a lack of economically viable fibre. Atlantic Power pays approximately $700,000 in water and sewer fees to the city per year.
Nelson's sister-in-law is the manager of Atlantic Power, however, Nelson said this does not influence his desire to push back on the rate increase.
"I am a huge advocate of businesses like that," he said, adding he has been an advocate for independent power producers from day one.
He also pointed out how when he was the finance chair for the city, the city reduced folio rates for forestry companies, lowering taxes on the forest sector.
"I'm pro-growth," he said.
