Photo by Curtis Galbraith

By Curtis Galbraith

City Hall

Stormwater utility idea not going ahead

Mar 12, 2024 | 6:00 AM

City council has decided not to go ahead with a stormwater utility for Grande Prairie.

This would have seen residents and businesses given a separate utility charge for the cost of stormwater drainage rather than having this paid for by property taxes.

The decision comes after more consultations with the community, including two open houses in late February plus an online survey. City administration says around 250 people attended the open houses on February 27 with 223 people filling out the survey.

Council opted to receive a report on the consultations for information, rather than asking administration to bring the bylaw back to a future council meeting.

Mayor Jackie Clayton says the idea is “dead for now.”

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“Municipalities across the province collect (a) stormwater utility from schools, churches (and) provincial buildings. In our municipality, we don’t charge taxes to those, so there’s no form for us to charge a stormwater fee to those provincial-type buildings.”

Clayton says many councillors felt the idea was more complex than first thought.

“There’s a lot there, right? You talk about impervious soil, you talk about assessment, you talk about flat fees.”

“There (were) four models that were presented for consideration and, with that, some impacted non-residential significantly and council wasn’t comfortable with those models.”

Clayton says other ideas would have had more impact on residential property owners.

The city had set up its budget so that the separate charge would start July 1 and now has to find a way to make up the difference on the property tax side.

Clayton says more will be known about how this will impact property taxes in April.

“There will be more information coming forward to council prior to then for deciding how to absorb that difference that would have been collected through a stormwater utility fee.”

“I think there’s always consideration, whether it be taxation, whether it be reserves.”

Clayton says council will also get a first quarter update in April and there may some gains the city will see at that time.

Clayton adds she doesn’t know if a future council would bring the idea back for more discussion.