If you use very little of the City’s water system, you may end up paying more under a proposed change to the way the City of Ottawa calculates your water bill.
If you don’t get a water bill, because you’re on a well or a private septic system, you would get one starting in 2017, under the proposed system.
Currently, City of Ottawa water users pay $1.80 for each cubic meter of drinking water, as well as a $2.11 per cubic meter sewer surcharge to cover both wastewater and stormwater infrastructure.
But, in a long-awaited report on changes to the City’s water fee, staff are recommending switching to a flat fee, based on water meter size, combined with a variable rate based on drinking water consumption. According to City data, the vast majority of homes and small businesses would pay the lowest flat fee of $17.25 per month ($9.14 for water and $8.11 for wastewater).
Adding to that, the variable fee for drinking water would be based on a graduated system with four tiers. For example, if you use 8 cubic meters, you enter the second tier (6 m3 to 25 m3), so you would pay for the first six cubic meters at the first tier rate, and you’d pay for the remaining two cubic meters at the second tier rate.
The City estimates that 85% of homes won’t notice much of a difference on their monthly bills.
The other change proposed by staff is a new stormwater fee. This fee would be based on property type and level of connection to the city’s water system. An urban home connected to the system would pay more because it has more impact on the city’s stormwater infrastructure than a rural home not connected to the system. The City would provide a discount to the annual stormwater fee based on the type, size, and location of each home.
For example, a single-family home in the City, connected to the water system would pay $106.56 per year on their property tax bill. A single-family rural home that is not connected to the water system would only pay $53.28 per year, a 50% discount. Agricultural and forested land would not pay a stormwater fee.
These changes have not yet been approved by Council. If they are, the new billing system would be phased in slowly. Unconnected property owners would pay 25% of their full stormwater fee starting in June, 2017. In 2018, all residents would be on the new rate structure.
By 2020, unconnected property owners would be charged their full applicable stormwater fee on their final Property Tax Bill.