City of Calgary to forgive $1.5 million in excessive water bills
Posted Feb 27, 2018 6:54 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
The City of Calgary has a plan to help residents with sky high water bills from ENMAX.
In most cases, the extra cost was the result of leaks ratepayers didn’t know they had.
Customers who receive abnormal bills amounting to three times their typical seasonal usage will be eligible for reimbursement.
Councillors have decided the best course of action is a program to help forgive an estimated $1.5 million, but there’s a catch; that money could end up being spread out across everyone’s bill as rates are set in the coming years.
Still, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said it’s best to think of it like the cost of spoilage or shoplifting at a grocery store explaining it will just be absorbed by the whole system.
“It’s frankly not that much in a very big utility and I think that makes sense,” he argued. “Rather than go after people for these overages, even if they were unintentional or they weren’t their fault, just absorbing that cost through the water utility, I think that makes a ton of sense.”
He added rates will likely be going up regardless.
“The cost of water servicing is going up a little bit, but we’ve frozen them in the last couple years, they will likely go up anyway but it won’t be because of this,” said Nenshi.
Councillor Jeromy Farkas said this isn’t an ENMAX problem or its responsibility.
“This is squarely within the city’s domain,” he said. “I think we have to continue to look more internally in order to deal with issues like these as they arise.”
He supports the plan, and voiced his concern that the city continues to layer on taxes, costs and fees, especially to those who have the least ability to pay.
