There’s a sprinkling of good news for area agriculturists. Following a presentation by board agricultural representatives Ted Osborn, Jamie Kidston and Tom Ouchi, North Okanagan Regional District directors voted in favour of a 2.5 per cent water rate increase for agriculturists. The move comes after a Greater Vernon Advisory Committee recommended NORD approve a nine per cent water rate increase for all water users. “This provides some surety to agriculture on what its rate structure will be looking like into the future,” said Osborn.
Speaking for the trio, Osborn provided a history lesson. He noted a Master Water Plan was developed by the North Okanagan Water Authority, the pre-cursor of today’s Greater Vernon Water Utility, when it became clear that future system development needed to incorporate the separation of domestic and agricultural water. Financial models developed which then predicted the schedule of agricultural and domestic rates that would be necessary to successfully fund the future development of the water system to effectively meet the water needs of all water users covered in the region. Osborn said agricultural water rates have increased almost exactly as perceived in the Master Water Plan. “The agricultural water users were under the clear impression their rates would increase by the cost of living,” he said. In 2009, the increase would rise from $210.56 per hectare to somewhere between $214.77 to $215.82 per hectare. A nine per cent increase would see agricultural water users paying $229.51 per hectare. “The industry will not only have suffered an unwarranted expense increase, but this increase is compounded into the future expenses of operation,” said Osborn, who argued that the agricultural community was not consulted when the nine per cent increase for all users was proposed.
The reduction for agriculturists means a potential loss of about $45,000 in revenue for NORD, but that didn’t concern Coldstream director Doug Dirk, who made the motion to reduce the rates. “We have all kinds of special projects that came up during our budget deliberation, and we can decide those within the budget, but we’ll be able to handle $45,000,” said Dirk. BX-Silver Star director Mike Macnabb voted in favour of the motion, but said more work on how much water is used by agriculturists needs to be done. “I don’t want to punish the agriculturists,” he said. “But we have to get a little more information. “The number 2.5 per cent is the best working number until we get more information.”
No comments:
Post a Comment