It’s been at least 15 years since Ritchot residents have experienced water and sewer utility rate hikes. Beginning in January 2023, that’s about to change.
In the new year, all residents will receive quarterly bills from the RM office with costs that reflect their actual household water usage and wastewater output, as well as administrative fees for the RM to manage this service.
Rates for 2023 calculate out to $2.35 per cubic meter for water and wastewater together (combining $1.68 per cubic meter of water, and $0.67 per cubic meter of wastewater). Additionally, a flat fee of $9.53 will be added for administration. This will show up on the bill as a quarterly service charge.
The rates will continue to climb marginally over the following two years. By 2025, residents can expect to be paying $3.09 per cubic meter for water and wastewater as well as quarterly service charges of $10.58.
Rural residents with no wastewater hook-up will pay only the quarterly service charge along with water rates that will range between $1.68 per cubic meter in 2023 up to $1.95 per cubic meter by 2025.
The graduated rate hikes are partly in response to deficits incurred by the RM’s utilities over the past number of years. Utility deficits from Ste. Agathe, St. Adolphe, and Île-des-Chênes/Grande Pointe amounted to $12,000, $37,000 and $21,000 respectively.
Based on a rate study performed by Dale Lyle of Way to Go Consulting Inc., the new rates should help recover those deficits and get the municipality back in the black and onto better footing.
The RM’s proposal for these rate hikes has received the full approval of the Public Utilities Board (PUB).
Amalgamating Four Utilities into One
Also approved by the PUB was the RM’s request to amalgamate their current four water and wastewater utilities (Ste. Agathe Water and Wastewater, St. Adolphe Water and Wastewater, Île-des-Chênes Water and Wastewater, and Rural Water) into one all-encompassing utility now known as the Ritchot Water and Wastewater.
Until this year, a variety of methods of calculating and billing have been used by the RM office, depending on the utility.
The Ste. Agathe utility, for instance, has been charging residents a two-tiered rate for water, with the fee being lower after the consumption of 50,000 gallons per quarter.
The St. Adolphe and Île-des-Chênes utilities also operated under a two-tier water rating with the cost being reduced after the consumption of 20,000 gallons per quarter.
CAO Mitch Duval says that residents, for the most part, shouldn’t receive a huge shock in terms of the new water rates.
Wastewater costs, on the other hand, may come as a surprise for some.
Like water, wastewater in Ste. Agathe has been charged based on the water meter reading. The RM has reasoned that the quantity of wastewater out should be similar in capacity to that of water going in, requiring only one meter per household for both utilities.
Because of this, residents in Ste. Agathe likely won’t feel much of an impact on the wastewater side either.
Homeowners in St. Adolphe, Île-des-Chênes, and Grande Pointe, however, haven’t been paying wastewater fees based on metered calculations even though their homes are equipped with water meters. Instead their costs have been estimated and then charged as a flat fee of $70 per year on the property tax bill.
A residential equivalence unit (REU) is the measure used for estimating utility usage and is meant to be applied to communities that are unmetered or partially unmetered.
After January 2023, the 100-unit trailer park in Île-des-Chênes will remain the only REU customers in the RM.
“The ones that were paying $70 a year will be impacted [by the new rates],” Duval says. “If they’re using a lot of water, they’ll be greatly impacted.”
For an example of how the old wastewater rates will stack up to the new ones for certain customers, if a household in St. Adolphe uses 45 cubic meters (9,900 imperial gallons) of water in a quarter, they will also be billed for 45 cubic meters of wastewater output.
Their wastewater charge will calculate to $30 in comparison to the approximate $17 flat fee they were paying prior.
The more wastewater they produce, the greater the disparity will be between new costs and old.
The Process of Applying for a Rate Change
According to the PUB’s report, the RM’s application for utility rate changes and amalgamation was received in July 2021. It was accompanied by the rate study performed by Lyle and a request that the RM be granted permission to begin implementing the new rates in July 2022.
In October 2021, the PUB issued notices of the request to the public. According to Duval, the notices were advertised in The Carillon newspaper, posted in each of the communities around the RM, and in the RM office and on its website. It was also sent to every resident subscribed to Ritchot Connect.
The public notice provided an invitation for comment from any affected residents. A few such comments were received by the PUB and relayed to the RM.
“Many of the responses to the Notice of Application were related to the transition of wastewater rates from REUs to a rate based on actual consumption,” says the PUB report. “The Board is aware this may possibly result in significant increases for some customers; however, this methodology aligns with the user-pay principle. The practice of billing metered customers using a flat rate is contradictory to that recommendation and the Board supports the RM in using consumption wherever possible.”
If they choose, the PUB has the authority to require the RM to hold a public hearing on the matter, but this comes with a cost and isn’t a first resort.
“If the [PUB] receives quite a bit of rebuttal, then they may [require] a public hearing,” Duval says. “But if it’s very limited, then they’ll just proceed with the order.”
No public hearing was required.
In 2022, the RM made a request to the PUB for a delay in the rate increase rollout, citing spring flooding as the reason. The implementation date was subsequently postponed to January 1, 2023.
What Exactly Do Utility Rates Pay For?
Having the ease of water in and water out from every household requires a lot of infrastructure.
On the water side, it begins with a treatment plant serviced by four different wells. The water is treated and filtered before it’s sent through miles and miles of piping to get to its many destinations.
To move wastewater away from homes requires pumps, lift stations, and, again, miles of piping to bring it to one of the three lagoons located in the municipality. The lagoons, too, must be treated and managed according to environmental standards.
The PUB requires that a 10 percent contingency allowance and a 20 percent working capital surplus be maintained by the RM at all times in order to cover the costs of ongoing maintenance and repairs to all this infrastructure.
In the end, Duval admits that it’s unfortunate that such a long span occurred between rate hikes, but it was inevitable that the RM would have to face it sooner or later.
“We haven’t had a rate increase since the early 2000s,” Duval says. “Things increase with time and therefore we needed to adjust our rates.”
Mayor Chris Ewen agrees that it was long overdue.
“It has been my mandate from day one to ensure all aspects of municipal services continue to be on par financially with today’s needs,” says Ewen. “The old school thought process of deferring decision-making until the next council is the reason why we sometimes end up with larger increases.”