Water Rates Rising More than First Reported

Quarterly Water Rate changes at Different consumption levels.

Written by Peter McIntyre  107.5 KISSFM Thursday, 14 March 2013 15:00 North Okangan Regional district staff are clarifying increases to Greater Vernon water rates for this year. After earlier saying the fees were going up three percent, Engineering G-M Dale McTaggert says that's just for the base rate, while consumption fees will rise anywhere from 3 to 21 percent. Vernon resident and former city councillor Barry Beardsell says he'll be facing a 20 percent increase, and feels officials are trying to cover up the real rates. "RDNO do not know what they're talking about. There might be one or two politicians that do, but the rest of the people are talking through their hat," says Beardsell. Beardsell (pictured) feels it's misleading that the increases were billed as modest by RDNO staff. "I believe that the media has been mislead. These so called modest increases result in increases of about 20 percent in the total water cost over the previous year." Greater Vernon Advisory Committee director Bob Spiers is not blaming staff. "The rates should not have been discussed and passed that quickly. We should have had a review of what those rates should be, and then we could have gone back to the drawing board," Spiers tells Kiss FM. The biggest increase of 21 percent is for customers who use 20 cubic meters per quarter (three months). RDNO is raising the rates to pay for millions of dollars worth of capital water projects such as separating the domestic and agricultural sources.