An effort to postpone metered water billing for another four months will continue despite a staff report advising against it says Councillor Mike Anthony.
"I understand that staff prepared a report that showed all the things they see as problems, but I also think as a council we set the direction and staff finds a way to follow it. I believe there are alternatives to what was presented."
Anthony will present a motion at Monday's council meeting asking that the deadline for starting be moved to January 1st, 2016, to allow residents more time to prepare and judge their new rate based on cyclical and seasonal variations.
"You can tell that staff wants to stick to what they've established as their timeline, I respect that they've put work into this.
"But we're not prepared to roll this out September 1st. We're just 10 days away and only a third of the community has looked at the portal, out of 17,000 households using water. I believe we're going to have sticker shock and surprise in September and October that we're not prepared for.
"I don't believe we have the resources at city hall to handle the questions, concerns and comments and surprise that people are going to have. I just think we've rushed into this.
Anthony is not sure if he has enough support from members of council to approve his motion.
"I wouldn't want to hazard a guess, but it could be close," he said.
But George Maroosis, the chair of the special committee examining the issue, thinks it's too late to go back now.
Maroosis asked staff if it was possible to push the date back and what would be the repercussions of doing so.
"The report said there was no point in getting into that mess. I mean there's no point in going and looking for trouble where there isn't any, and that's what you would have been doing with this. If it had been a simple thing that could have been done without major repercussion I would have gone along with it, but it just doesn't work.
Maroosis polled his committee and the majority said they couldn't recommend a delay to council.
The committee still has lots of work ahead, dealing with what Maroosis calls "the big nut to crack", working out equity with the industrial sector.
The next meeting of the water advisory committee is Monday August 31st at 5 p.m. Those meetings are open to the public.
