Mayor Lori Ackerman says these outlined changes have been a long time coming for the City of Fort St. John.
“Five years ago we decided that the water and wastewater really needed to be valued appropriately,” Mayor Ackerman goes on to say “…Of course the federal government have got regulations coming into place – again December 31st – they’ve been staged in.”
Mayor Ackerman adds, “Owners of water and wastewater systems are being held at a higher standard of operation, and so we’re really just taking the rates to where they need to be in order to invest appropriately in the systems…”
As per changes to water regulation, an increase of $0.07 will be applied to metered rates of residents, totaling $1.35 per cubic metre as opposed to the previous rate of $1.28. Bulk water users are being charged $7.50 per cubic metre.
A $20 fee is being charged to any account needing updated billing information (i.e. if ownership of a building changes).
Rates for sewer usage in also seeing an increase of $0.16, bringing that number to $1.49 per cubic metre opposed to the previous $1.33.
The changes will be added to your utility bill come January 2015.
