CORNWALL – City residents could be facing a stiff increase in their water and sewer bill for 2018.
If the draft 2018 water and and sewer budget were passed today, it would be an overall increase of 7.65 per cent.
The increase comes even though the city expects to collect more money for running its services (8.87 per cent increase in water billings and 6.67 per cent increase in sewer billings).
Most of the increase is due to the city putting a lot of money into infrastructure as it plans to spend almost $1 million more on replacing and repairing water and sewer pipes in 2018 ($5.69 million versus $4.89 million in 2017). There’s a 23 per cent increase in water capital projects and an 8 per cent increase in sewer works.
So what does this mean for your bill?
For a homeowner with one bathroom, one outside tap and no swimming pool, it would be an extra $45 on their yearly bill.
For a two bedroom home with an outside tap and a swimming pool, the increase would be $64 for 2018.
City council will meet on Dec. 11 at 1 p.m. to pass the waterworks budget. While discussing a potential date for the meeting on Monday, Coun. Mark MacDonald was prepared to pass the budget as is because there was nothing that council could do to change it.