MAPLETON – Most user fees and charges for municipal services in Mapleton are set to increase, including permits, zoning amendments, animal control, cemetery services and hall rentals.
Township staff will present the proposed increases during a public meeting on Oct. 8.
The fees and charges are for services that directly benefit specific users, not services that benefit the entire community (the latter are funded by property taxes).
Along with the increased rates, staff propose changes to the fees and charges bylaw “to bring further clarity and definition to the bylaw while not changing the fee structure itself,” states a report presented to council on Sept. 24.
All of the increases intend to ensure user fees are enough to recover costs for services that directly benefit specific users, the report states.
While most proposed changes are consistent with increases to the cost of living (2.4 per cent), planning fees and water and wastewater rates are set to grow more significantly.
Staff is proposing increasing planning fees by 52% over three years (17.33% per year), in addition to cost-of-living increases, “to ensure full cost recovery by the year 2026,” the report states.
Water, wastewater
Staff have proposed increasing water and wastewater fees by 5.5% for the average user.
“This will occur by modifying the wastewater consumption rate from $1.45 per cubic metre to $2.13 per cubic metre and maintaining the water consumption rate at $2.25 per cubic metre,” the report states.
Mapleton financial analyst Heather Trottier said this increase is necessary to cover service costs and costs of line maintenance and infrastructure maintenance.
“Water and wastewater consumption rates should be adequate to cover operating expenses, while base rates should provide adequate funding to support the on-going infrastructure needs within environmental services,” the report notes.
For the last two years, Trottier said the township has lost over $40,000 each year because water and wastewater rates do not keep up with the costs.
Mayor Gregg Davidson said Mapleton’s water and wastewater fees are “quite high already, and we hear a lot of feedback from the community.”
He noted while the rates will increase 5.5% for average users (people who consume about 11.2 cubic metres monthly), many Mapleton residents consume significantly more, including the mayor himself.
“There’s only two of us in our house [and] we are above the 11.2. The lowest we possibly get is around 15. Most of the time we are around the 20 mark.”
Davidson said for his household, the proposed changes would mean an increase of 14 to 15%, not 5.5%. That’s between about $15 and $18.50 per bill, he said.
“So that’s a big number for jumping ahead … I just want council to understand that number does fluctuate, depending on how much water you use.”
There are about 1,000 municipal water and wastewater users in Mapleton, with 41 using industrial sized metres and the rest residential.
That’s a relatively small number of users, which Trottier said is “part of the problem” leading to high rates.
“We are carrying this infrastructure and we only have 1,008 users.”
“That has always been our issue, having that low number, and … the bulk of our costs end up on the residential user,” Davidson added.
Finance director Patrick Kelly said staff would collect further information about the impact of increases on different users.
“Water is by far the cheapest commodity that you can buy in this world,” Kelly said, “and by far the most important commodity you can consume in this world.
“That’s not to say we can put the rates wherever we want them – we put the rates at a reasonable amount to ensure that we have funding in place to maintain and expand infrastructure when needed,” he said.
Public meeting
To read the report and proposed bylaw, visit mapleton.civicweb.net/document/35519/.
Residents can attend the public meeting in person at the township office, 7275 Sideroad 16, at 7pm on Oct. 8.
The meeting will be livestreamed and a recording will be posted, both at mapleton.civicweb.net/portal/.
