Quote:
Originally Posted by Stormer
I think this qualifies as an infrastructure issue. I heard on CBC radio that Regina has the 3rd highest water rates in Canada. The guest noted that Buffalo Pound Water is expensive to treat and transport. Also we have state of the art sewage treatment, unlike place like Victoria that dump raw sewage in to the ocean (and then criticize us for producing oil and gas for people's cars and homes).
We all know that our bills have gone way up, but they of course include sewer, drainage and recycling charges. Also there are a lot of fixed charges. The variable charge for water and sewer works out to less the 1/2 cent per litre, or about 2.5 cents to flush your toilet.
https://www.regina.ca/home-property/...tes/index.html |
I was just commenting on this study last night.
I'd love to know if he included our recycling charge into his calculation - if so, that's a significant flaw. It's a Utility Bill - not a Water Bill - and the recycling charge is in no way tied to water use, so to latch onto the fact that we have a Utility bill, which happens to include charges for water, and calculate our water cost based on the utility bill total makes zero sense. The summary I read wasn't clear if he does this for Regina, but it does note that Sask & Alberta include recycling/garbage on the "water bill" more often than other provinces, which increases our water cost... so I'll assume he included Regina's recycling, creating an apples-to-oranges comparison with other cities in the list.
(
FTR: I think recycling should be included in our property taxes, just like Fire, Libraries, Police, roadways, garbage, etc - not a stand-alone user fee. It's a basic municipal service... not some wacky new thing the City's trying out)
To you point, Stormer, the fixed costs associated with water in Regina remove nearly all incentive to reduce water usage. Based on our last bill, if we shut the water off, and didn't use a drop, we'd pay $102.46 (daily fixed charges). The variable portion - based on usage - was just $34.46. If our water is expensive to treat & transport, we might want to encourage people to use less (also worthwhile from an environmental standpoint) - the variable portion of our bill provides very little incentive to reduce. Best case - if we
cut our consumption by 50%, our bill would drop from $136.92 to $119.69
We bought an above ground pool for the kids - it's great, they love it. Family commented that it must cost a fortune to fill - they didn't believe me when I said it cost under $20 to fill it (using 5,500L). At that price, I could've drained it every couple of weeks without breaking the bank. This also reminded me that watering the lawn/garden like crazy, or having extra long showers, doesn't really cost much... there's little financial incentive to curtail use.
All this to say, I think Regina needs to revisit the costing model for water, if they'd like residents to get serious about reducing consumption.