Weyburn city council approved increases to the water and sewer rates starting on Jan. 1, 2021, with equal increases following the next two years, to help pay for the system upgrades and capital projects.
Council approved the increase on Monday evening, with the average household to see an increase of $8 a month on their utility bills.
Jennifer Wilkinson, director of engineering, explained that utility rates are designed to cover the operations and capital projects related to water quality, and all operations are paid for by the utility fees and not through taxation.
The water, waste water and infrastructure charges are based on consumption, with a base charge to ensure a minimum revenue to deliver the service.
Under current billing, minimum monthly bills range from $72 up to $325, depending on the size of the pipe used for servicing a property. For customers of the Weyburn Utility Board the minimum monthly bill is $40.41, and for North Weyburn it’s $68.50.
Some of the capital projects in the past few years included the major reservoir expansion, upgrades from lead water lines and a city-wide water meter replacement, watermain replacements, new sewer trunk mains, and coming this year a new lift station.
In coming years, there are two major projects lined up, including new plant 300, decommissioning of play 100, and new raw water intake from an alternate water source, with these projects combined to cost an estimated $50 million.
The projects and upgrades of the past few years have drawn down the utility reserves, which were at $3.159 million at the start of 2020 and will be down to $1.924 million by the end of this year.
The increases in the rates are in part to help rebuild those reserves, said Wilkinson, with the increases to take effect on Jan. 1 in 2021, 2022 and 2023.
• In other council business, the official community plan was approved, and the city’s zoning bylaw will be amended as a result, with a public hearing on the changes to take place at the next council meeting on Monday, Sept. 14.
The official community plan lays out the planning process for how land is used in the City of Weyburn, and helps to manage the future growth and development of the community.
Consultations have been held with the public as well as with the Chamber of Commerce, the RM of Weyburn and other stakeholders, and a consulting firm went over the documents and bylaws to revise and modernize the language of the plan.
The plan includes a future land use map, showing areas on the northern part of the city for future residential development, as well as the areas set aside for commercial and industrial growth and development.
The zoning bylaw lays out how the city implements their development policies and regulations and to control the use of land and regulate development.
