Posted on 1/28/2016 by Pete McIntyre 107.5 KISSFM
Greater Vernon politicians have given the go ahead for water rates to rise this year. As part of a new 19 million dollar water budget, the fees will go up 2 percent. Greater Vernon Services chair Juliette Cunningham says how the fees break down in the three tiers (down from the previous five), will be decided later. "We're trying to protect the lower water users and make it a fairer distribution of those rates, so we will continue to have those discussions." Director Bob Spiers was opposed to the new budget, concerned where part of the rate hike will go. "I think there is still some questions whether we should be putting that much money into reserves." Staff say RDNO's water reserve is now at 19 million dollars, money used for capital projects and emergencies. Spiers says that money can help during or for upgrades, but doesn't need to be that high, especially when some of it comes from the rate hikes. "As (Coldstream councillor) Gyula Kiss said, when the reserves total one year's budget, they seem excessive to me." Cunningham feels that amount is justified. "It's a very expensive system, and it's a big system so I really don't think it's unreasonable." Cunningham says they are working on an asset management project and by the end of that they will be in a better position to decide the proper amount for reserves. Cunningham says 9 million dollars in capital projects are planned including upgrading water meter technology. "There's also the dam projects where we are trying to increase the storage, all in anticipation of when we have drought years, we'll have capacity to have more storage."
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See amended GVAC Agenda Package: http://www.rdno.ca/agendas/160128_AGN_GVAC_SPEC_amended_Full.pdf
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