Aquatera customers will be paying an average of $2.82 more per month on their utility bills after city council approved several amendments to the utility bylaw during their recent Monday night meeting.
Increases will affect water, wastewater, and garbage collection; however, the changes do include a decrease in recycling as the city moves to an Extended Producer Responsibility model, which means the companies will bear the cost of recycling, instead of the city itself.
Still, Aquatera CEO Vaughn Bend says the increase in charges is not taken lightly; however, due to ongoing inflationary pressures, it is necessary to maintain service.
“It’s obviously difficult, but we’re not the only ones in that space right, there’s a ton of businesses small and large that have the same challenges,” he says. “One of the things we try to do is a long-range plan, and we are a long-cycle business, the assets we put in the ground are very very expensive, and they last 30, 40, sometimes 60 or 70 years so we have to make sure when we make those investments, that they’re prudent investments.”
While the EPR model will not result in any immediate, direct impacts on residents, Bend maintains that just because the model carries cost-savings right now, it is likely the price of goods will soon follow.
“We know that when businesses have additional costs, they raise their prices, and I think that’s what’s going to happen ultimately,” he says.
Despite the increases, Bend says residents can mitigate any additional costs simply by being smart with their water consumption. He says water conservation can directly save you money on your water bills, and given the “drought-like” conditions Grande Prairie has experienced so far this winter, it is important to save water anyway as the company only holds around two to three days of reserve water at a time.
“People, if they conserve water, they can reduce their rates, it’s not a lot, you could probably, if you’re smarter with your water use, you could probably get that one or two dollars a month off your bill, maybe not, but maybe half of it, so there is an opportunity.”
The CEO maintains that the increases in cost-of-service will help maintain the status quo, while also supporting the costs of replacing aging infrastructure.
“We’re actually adding in a lot of capital and replacing a lot of infrastructure that’s old, so what we’re doing is we’re looking at operational improvements, making new things cheaper, and then we’re also trying to differ our capital,” he says. “Now, we have to balance the risk, to make sure we’re still serving the public and our customers, but we’ve been able to, at least at this point, differ some of that capital and reduce some of the demands, i.e. cost to our customers.”
The amended bylaw also outlines changes to fines for anyone who chooses to not abide by any water restrictions, starting at $400 for a first offence, before increasing incrementally up to $2,500 for any repeat offences.
