Increase would be a matter of cents

The Town of Bonnyville utilities, water and garbage, are expected to increase by 1.5 percent in 2017. At the Town’s open house, Chief Administrative Officer (CAO) Mark Power explains the reason for the increase is that the Town has not increased the utilities charges in quite a number of years.

“I’ll give you a heads up, we’re giving Council three options at Tuesday’s Council meeting because we’re falling behind at one percent and Administration is recommending to Council that we increase by 1.5 percent for the next few years.” Power explains the difference to the average monthly bill may be a dollar at most. “Over the last five years, we’ve averaged 1.29 percent in inflation and cost, but we’ve only been increasing the bill by 1 percent.”

Power explains the practice of going up one percent per year was to avoid years of ten percent jumps, “we’re going to see a larger increase required at some point down the road, so we’re presenting [1.5 percent] as an option.” Council has been increasing by 1 percent for four or five years, explains Power.

Council will be presented with various options on how to approach utility pricing, whether to increase the cost and by how much, at Tuesday’s regular Council meeting.