Burnaby residents can expect a financial reprieve next year.
At Monday night’s meeting, city council approved a zero per cent increase to the city’s sanitary sewer and water utility rates, with services to be maintained at 2017 levels.
The rates cover the costs associated with water delivery and provide funding for operating and capital works. The biggest chunk of the city’s sanitary sewer and waterworks budgets goes to Metro Vancouver, which treats the region’s water supply and liquid waste. (This year, the average non-metered single-family home paid $578 for water and $541 for sewer use, if paid by March 15. For strata, those numbers are $331 and $293, respectively.)
Noreen Kassam, the City of Burnaby’s director of finance, told the NOW the zero per cent increase is due to “prudent financial planning” by the city.
“We knew there was some really high-profile projects coming down the pike; we just didn’t know when those increases from Metro Vancouver Water District or the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District would materialize. And we’re seeing them materialize now; but because we knew there were projects coming down the pike, we were planning well in advance so that when they did, we would then be able to mitigate any impact to the taxpayers,” she said.
Some of Metro Vancouver’s projects include continuing the expansion of the Annacis wastewater treatment plant and upgrading the Iona wastewater treatment plant.
To cover those costs, Metro Vancouver passes rate increases onto municipalities. Burnaby, however, has enough money in the bank to not pass it onto the taxpayer, added Kassam.
“We’re utilizing what we’ve gathered in the past,” she said, noting one thing that has helped beef up the city’s reserves and keep rates low is fees coming from secondary suites.
The city’s projected 2018 waterworks utility expenditures total $55.2 million, a decrease of $163,000 compared to 2017. Fifty-one per cent of the budget goes to Metro Vancouver for drinking water, while the rest is split between investments in water-related infrastructure (33 per cent) and the city’s transmission system (15 per cent).
Next year’s sanitary sewer expenditures are estimated at $44.1 million, an increase of $1 million over 2017. Similarly, the cost is divvied up between the Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District levy imposed by Metro Vancouver (50 per cent), maintenance and operations by the city (17 per cent), and infrastructure investment (26 per cent).
While there will be no increases next year, rates will begin to go up by one to two per cent starting in 2019.
At Monday’s meeting, city council also approved a 12-month billing grace period for secondary suites under construction.
Rate increases Greater Vancouver Sewerage and Drainage District passes on to the City of Burnaby
2018: 5.8 per cent
2019: 13.7 per cent
2020: 10.4 per cent
2021: 9.8 per cent
2022: 5.7 per cent
Rate increases Greater Vancouver Water District passes on to the City of Burnaby
2018: 3.9 per cent
2019: 5.9 per cent
2020: 7.7 per cent
2021: 7.7 per cent
2022: 7.9 per cent
Water rate increases
2013: 6 per cent
2014: 5.5 per cent
2015: 3 per cent
2016: 2 per cent
2017: 1 per cent
2018: 0 per cent
2019: 1 per cent
2020: 1 per cent
2021: 1 per cent
2022: 1 per cent
Sewer rate increases
2013: 6 per cent
2014: 5.5 per cent
2015: 3 per cent
2016: 1.5 per cent
2017: 1 per cent
2018: 0 per cent
2019: 2 per cent
2020: 2 per cent
2021: 2.5 per cent
2022: 2.75 per cent
