During the revamped public question process last week, Mayor Allan Alls defended his previous comments about how the town would pay for a possible wastewater facility, while the rest of the council weighed in for the first time.
A letter from citizens Roy Val and Joe Spiteri, which was the first since council changed the public question period procedure last month, asked council to comment on how the town will pay for the future wastewater facility.
They made note of Alls’ comments in a Jan. 8 Advertiser article stating he would like all town taxpayers to cover the capital costs, and asked if the rest of council agreed.
Alls stated during the interview, “The way I see it, it’s a user-pay system but the initial construction and basics of the system will be a town-paid system.”
At the April 19 meeting Alls defended that statement.
“My opinion on that has not changed … I did it deliberately to start conversation because we’ve been sitting here and everybody’s been dancing around – it was time it got out in the air,” Alls said.
“If we were to strictly do (user-pay), we might as well give up now because the town of Erin, the village of Erin, the users, could not pay for it, there’s no way they could do it.”
Alls said he sees a mix of funding from federal and provincial governments, as well as developers, and added a wastewater system would benefit the entire municipality.
“I see a benefit for the whole town, not just for the urban residents but the whole town as a whole,” he said.
“I suspect this council will not make the final financial decision. We will make some decisions in principal obviously, we have to as we go through the EA, but the next council will have to make the big money decisions about how it’s going to be paid for and who will pay for it.”
Councillor John Brennan was opposed to forcing rural residents, who would not be hooked up to the system, to pay for capital costs of a future wastewater facility.
“I think there’s a reason that the province mandated that water and sewage systems are user pay and it goes back to the Walkerton crisis and its fundamental principal is that people who have the most at stake… should be the ones who are paying for it,” he said.
However, Brennan suggested the town could charge rural residents a “tipping fee” for dumping septic sewage at the possible Erin facility – rather than have them truck it to another facility like Collingwood.
Councillor Rob Smith said he has not made up his mind.
“I’m a little half and half on where to go and I’d like to see where the recommendations come and what they actually say and really be able to compare some costs,” Smith said.
It would have to be a balance between what is fair and what is necessary, commented councillor Matt Sammut. He said it would be fair for rural residents not to pay, but “If it can’t happen because it is way too expensive for just the ratepayers themselves … we have to say to rural (residents) do you want your town to thrive or fully die?”
Councillor Jeff Duncan said he was also on the fence.
“I haven’t formulated a total position for myself,” he said. “I do see … this is going to be on slate for the next council to probably implement, but we will be guiding it to a certain point.”
Alls said he has never used the town’s recreation infrastructure, yet he still pays taxes to keep those facilities running.
However, Sammut took issue with that comparison.
“The difference … is you had every right to use (the infrastructure). It was your choice not to use it. You wont have an option … if you’re a rural resident (to use) a waste management system,” Sammut said.
Smith said, “There’s services in town that actually extend out to the rural areas… Somebody from the rural area comes in to use the Centre 2000 washroom, what do we do, issue pasSports for the rural and then they come in and pay a tipping fee to go to the washroom? Because people in town have paid for that sewer system.”
