Residents of the King Edward Bay, Bluewater Park, and Bowen Bay water systems will see a double digit percentage hike in their next bills.
The 13.4 per cent increases are being made to hit revenue expectations for the trio of Local Advisory Committees (LAC) set out in the 2022 budget. All three LAC’s agreed to the changes during meetings this year, and council unanimously approved three readings of the new rates Monday night, advancing them to final approval at the next meeting on Nov. 28. Bills for 2022 will be mailed out after that.
In dollar terms, this means the 254 properties impacted – 153 in Bluewater (BWP), 60 in Bowen Bay (BB), and 41 in King Edward Bay (KEB) – will see a utility bill increase of $125 for connected properties ($960 to $1,085), and $75 for unconnected properties ($600 to $675).
Chief financial officer (CFO) Kristen Watson also updated council during the Nov. 14 meeting on the planned project to one day unite the three LAC’s into one, tentatively named the ‘Westside Water System’. Under the current setup King Edward Bay and Bluewater Park are already largely integrated, with BWP paying KEB each year to draw from its wells. Bowen Bay operates its own system.
But through a combination of more people coming to the King Edward LAC, and reduced well production in Bluewater, the KEB wells have been pushed to capacity. Watson says grouping the three systems, allowing King Edward – and by extension Bluewater – to tap into the Bowen Bay wells would help fix this problem.
“That will allow the residents on the west side to have sufficient water supply for the summer, and go a long way to address some of the leakages that we’ve had in the Bluewater system,” said the CFO.
The plan would involve upgrading Bowen Bay wells and connecting them to the King Edward system, along with improvements to Bluewater’s distribution system. The cost of the project, estimated at $1.6 million, would be covered by a parcel tax on BWP residents.
Watson also spoke about efforts to convert all three LAC’s to a metred rate payment system – meaning more water consumption equals a higher bill, and vice versa – instead of the current fixed rate model where everybody pays the same price. Past council direction suggested this approach in recognition of the Island Plan’s emphasis on conservation.
King Edward and Bluewater are on board with the switch to metred rates, but so far Bowen Bay has opposed the change. “It puts a bit of a hitch in the whole integration plan because it creates this difference of rate bylaws from people who are effectively going to be drawing from the same system,” says Watson, stating it wouldn’t make sense for the potential unified Westside Water System to have multiple payment methods for its members.
“It’s a problem… that’s one of the issues that we’re currently trying to find a solution to on the west side,” said Watson, adding more consultation with the BB LAC will be taking place. The CFO says the goal is to have everybody on board with metred rates in time for the 2023 utility bills.
