Marathon meeting brings potential water & sewer rate increase

North Bay city council held their bi-weekly committee meeting on Monday night, and no one could have expected the near-5-hour length of it.

However, during the meeting the General Government Committee passed a draft recommendation which will see development charges on urban area single family dwellings go from $5,032 and increase to $9,303 from 2010 to 2014.

Deputy Mayor, Peter Chirico says that works out to an increase of about $800 per year.

Another issue on the General Government’s agenda on Monday night was water and sewer rates. Council drafted a recommendation which would see all water rates increase by 6.9%, while the Sanitary Sewer Surcharge would keep steady at 106% of all water charges – which equals to about $4.08 per month. Deputy Mayor Peter Chirico said this is something that is necessary to move forward.

“The fact of the matter is we have to receive 100% cost recovery for what we spend on delivering water,” Chirico said.

Chirico said that things are always changing and there’s not much that can be done about it.

“The reality of it is in my lifetime – probably in my children’s lifetime… I doubt we will ever see a reduction,”