Somerset ward Coun. Diane Holmes is applauding city council’s decision to approve an increase to water and sewer rates, saying it will force Ottawa residents to become green or pay the price.
“I think people will be much more interested in conservation, they’ll be interested in using less water as the rates go up,” says Holmes, who wasn’t present for the vote. “That’s a good thing.”
Councillors approved a seven-per-cent increase to water and sewer rates for this year and next in line with the city’s long-term plan that forecasts a 73-per-cent rise in water and sewer rates over the next decade as the city repairs and replaces aging infrastructure.
If current levels of water usage continue, the increase will add about $47 to the average household water bill this year and another $50 in 2014.
However, Holmes says she doesn’t expect costs to increase to that extent because she thinks residents will adapt and learn to use less water.
She says local businesses will be able to manage the increase, too, as long as they make conservation a priority.
“I don’t think that we’re very good at conservation. People think that we live beside a big river and see that water has been fairly cheap in the past,” Holmes says.
“It will be a benefit in the long term because people won’t be wasting water.”
Centretown Citizens Ottawa Corp., the neighbourhood’s main social housing agency, agrees, says Meg McCallum, the group’s membership and communications manager.
She says paying more money for water will be worthwhile because “from a sustainability perspective, it makes a lot of sense.”
The group is planning to install low-flow toilets in most of its 1,500 units throughout the city in order to deal with the increase. McCallum says the move will help offset rising water costs and allow the group to fulfill its mandate of providing affordable housing while making the community more environmentally friendly.
She says that, while it may not be easy for some, other businesses in Centretown will have to make similar changes if they want to continue to thrive with rising costs.
“It’s a matter of tightening the belt of the budget, achieving cost savings over time and changing some of the business models,” McCallum says. However, some people in the community don’t share her point of view.
Jo-Ann Laverty, co-owner of The Red Apron bakery on Gladstone Avenue, says there is nothing her business can do to cut down its use of water and that it will be negatively impacted as water rates continue to climb over the next decade.
“We are a production kitchen,” Laverty says. “We go through a significant amount of water. Our dishwasher is going eight hours a day. It would impact us.”
Centretown Citizens Community Association vice-president Rob Dekker echoes those sentiments.
Dekker says the rising cost of water will have a greater impact on Centretown than other areas of the city because a majority of residents and businesses in the neighbourhood are already dealing with a high cost of living and have seen property taxes increase substantially in recent years.
He says low-income residents — particularly those who rent — will be most susceptible to the change. “We know salaries are not keeping up (with costs) and that there is going to be a bubble that bursts,” Dekker says.
While the increase may stretch the budgets of some, Holmes says that certain infrastructure work needs to be done. She says doing it now will be more cost effective in the long run than waiting until after light rail tracks have been laid in Centretown.