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By Liam Verster
Offsetting rate increase

County of Grande Prairie approves subsidy to offset wastewater rate increase

Jun 2, 2021 | 12:40 PM

The County of Grande Prairie has approved a subsidy that will offset Aquatera’s rate increase for wastewater.

The utility provider is increasing the rates in Clairmont by 15 per cent, and the rates for the rest of the County by 20 per cent.

In an effort to relieve the residents of the burden of the increased rates, County of Grande Prairie Council approved subsidies of $150,000 for the Clairmont system and $75,000 for the ‘other County’ system that Aquatera operates at Monday’s meeting.

“Council felt that it was appropriate to use the dividends and franchise fees that we receive from those systems to help offset some of those cost increases that we’re seeing for this six months anyway,” says Reeve Leanne Beaupre.

By subsidizing the rates, residents of the County will see their rates essentially stay the same.

“The reason of [providing] the subsidy was to keep the rates at what the citizens have seen for the first six months of 2021. They will continue to see that until the final part of 2021, and we’ve asked for Aquatera to come back and show us what they are estimating or forecasting what the rate increases will look like going forward so Council can have a better decision mechanism to decide whether or not we will continue the subsidization of those rates or whether we’ll look at full cost accounting for them,” says Beaupre.

The County also has other wastewater systems that the municipality operates, and on top of approving the subsidy, County Council has tasked administration with looking into and bringing back information on the costs associated with all their systems to find out the true costs and whether one system is more subsidized than the others.

The reports from County administration and from Aquatera will be discussed at a future Council meeting when both are available.

County Council also discussed subsidizing the water rate during Monday’s meeting, but decided against it, as the rates are only going up by 2.5 per cent, which puts them at a similar level to other shareholders.

by Liam Verster