!@&?$ water bills are high and rising

Water and sewer service increase for 2025 about 5 per cent

The new water tower in Hastings taking shape. From Facebook.

If you are at a local gathering over the holidays and there’s a lull in the conversation. I suggest you could kickstart things by mentioning one of the most boring topics imaginable. But get ready to stir up some anger cause around here these are fighting words.

No, don’t mention the Leafs, though that will often work in some circles, but casually say to someone who lives in Campbellford, Hastings, or Warkworth: “Damn water bills, am I right.”

For most of us, the only thing we want to know is that the water coming from our taps is clean and that the stuff we flush goes somewhere and gets treated somehow.

But for a lot of people, especially the ones who spend their time on Facebook, the topic is a hot one. It’s not that they necessarily think the water isn’t safe, or the sewage isn’t treated, but they object, really object, to the cost of the service.

A local real estate agent could do a booming business by selling all the homes of people who say this time the increase is too much, and they are moving.

The reality is that our water and wastewater rates are higher than many other places and they are going up again in 2025. The draft budget, which will come back to council on Dec. 10 for discussion and possible passage, shows that the average monthly bill for someone who uses 10,000 cubic metres of water will rise from $121.69 to $126.89, an increase of $5.20, or 4.8 per cent for 2025.

That compares with a rate in Cobourg for similar usage of $57.53 a month, while in Stirling-Rawdon the cost would be about $100, and residents in Brighton pay about that amount too.

So, why are our rates higher?

The first thing to consider is that the water and wastewater (sewer) departments are not funded the way the rest of municipal services are, from our taxes. They are solely paid for by the users. So, rural residents of Trent Hills don’t contribute to the payments, which is fair, but means the number of residents paying for the services is reduced.

The total cost for water services to be paid by users for 2025 is $2,265,610, up $168,768, or 8 per cent from $2,096,842 in 2024. The users’ cost for wastewater services in 2025 is $2,927,849, up $243,124, or 9 per cent from $2,684,725.

The challenge in Trent Hills has been the need to rebuild and replace aging water and sewer systems, especially in Hastings in recent years. Provincial grants help and in good times the municipality puts money aside in reserve and uses it to pay capital expenses.

But the work has been expensive, and the municipality now has annual debt payments for those improvements of $906,952 that represent 15 per cent of the water budget and 26 per cent of the wastewater budget.

The good news is that the amount of capital work being done is down from $8.8 million in 2024, largely for the water works in Hastings, to $3.7 million in 2025. That means more money will be set aside for future costs.

We know there will be future costs, since Campbellford is set for major growth if the planned subdivisions come to fruition. The planning department said last week that there is enough sewer and water system capacity for the Sunny Life apartments and homes on Church Avenue.

A study of the overall situation is to be carried out in 2025. The large Camelot Village that’s just getting started and the adjacent hoped-for hospital development on the northwest edge of town will certainly require substantial services over the next decade or two.

One thing I spotted in the draft budget, which I mentioned in my first story on 2025 spending, was that wages were jumping about 20 per cent in both the water and wastewater departments.

After the meeting last week, I asked Chief Administrative Officer Lynn Phillips why that was. She explained that basically the town is doing a better job of tracking how employees spend their time and is charging a larger chunk of that time to the water and wastewater areas.

That means ratepayers will pay less on their taxes than they would have, but water users will pay more on those bills.

One challenge for those upset about the charges, or any councillor who wants to understand what’s going on and ask questions, is that the sector is driven by engineers who simply set out what has to be done and what it costs. There is little wiggle room, certainly none that a non-engineer can divine.

For example, when costs were rising for what has become the Sunny Life Wellness and Recreation Centre, the council of the day decided to scale back the number of lanes in the pool and eliminate a walking track. But who on council is going to argue for a shorter water tower in Hastings or thinner sewer pipes on Ranney Street?

When the draft water budget was presented to council last week there was little discussion and they had only a few questions. But really what could they say?

Last spring, council had a lengthy discussion about spending an extra $1,000 or so on some item. (I can’t even recall what it was.) An exasperated Councillor Gene Brahaney noted that at the previous meeting the cost of the new standpipe in Hastings had doubled and no one batted an eye.

I can hear you thinking, what about development charges? Those are high and pay for everything, right?

No, not exactly. Developers have to pay for services within their property and the charges help pay to upgrade services getting to those properties, but there is no guarantee the fees are enough.

We’ll learn more about that relationship in future years as our communities grow and the services need to be expanded. But it seems unlikely our rates will go down.

The moral of the story is that when faced with a bad situation that they can’t change some people complain — about the weather, or the Leafs, or their water bills.

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