CORNWALL – After a one week delay over a debate on water meters, both the 2023 water and sewer budget and the water meter issue have been passed and put to bed.
Council voted 8-3 Monday night to approve a 2.99 per cent increase for flat rate residential customers and a 7.89 increase for customers with meters in the commercial, industrial and institutional (ICI) sector.
Couns. Maurice Dupelle, Syd Gardiner and Sarah Good voted against the budget.
For homeowners, it will be an extra $21 to $29 a year based on the number of fixtures in the home. On the ICI side, it will be $505 to $2,022 more a year depending on the amount of water used (the rate would go from 55.7 cents per cubic meter to 59.2 cents).
Council debated at length whether administration’s plan to borrow $1.2 million from reserves to leave customers with a palatable rate increase was justified.
In an interview with Cornwall Newswatch, Coun. Sarah Good “wasn’t entirely comfortable” using reserves and was also disappointed a 10 per cent increase for the ICI sector wasn’t on the table.
Mayor Justin Towndale says he’s comfortable drawing down on reserves at this time given the current economic climate.
The mayor – a longtime proponent of water meters – agreed with Coun. Carilyne Hebert that doing the water meters now will save in the long run as hard costs keep escalation.
Towndale also believes a report that most users will save money in the long run with meters.
The city plans to spend $29.2 million on water and sewer capital projects this year, compared to $11 million last year. One of the biggest line items is $15.8 million for water meters. While that’s earmarked for financing, city staff told council borrowing for that wouldn’t happen until 2024 or 2025.
Cornwall provides water and sewer to 17,300 properties across the city. There are 18,000 flat rate accounts and 275 metered accounts.
The city pipes 30 million liters (6.7 million gallons) of water and treats 42 million liters (9.3 million gallons) of sewage every day.