Work on the city’s 2023 budget is getting underway.
Council will be discussing preliminary water and wastewater rates at a special committee meeting on Wednesday.
The city says user rates are calculated on a full cost recovery model based on consumption and meter size.
“The total net budget for the water system is projected to be approximately $13.1 million and the total net budget for the wastewater system is approximately $12.5 million,” states a staff report. “Average residential consumption remained in the range of 13 to 14 cubic meters per month during 2022.”
A sample invoice with the report shows a basic customer bill with water and sanitary usage, on 14 cubic metres of water, would increase by $5.23 a month, or just under 6%.
That’s based on the staff recommendation to continue with a 50% fixed and 50% variable rate.
Annually, the bill would be $1,110.72.
The staff report also points out that according to the 2022 BMA Study, North Bay ranks 4th lowest in total water/wastewater rate costs among the 10 northern municipalities that participated.
“The yearly residential water/wastewater costs for the consumption of 200 cubic meters (m3) of water (16m3 per month) in North Bay was $1,135,” states the report. “This was $201 less than the average for northern communities and $102 less than the Ontario average.”
Wednesday’s meeting starts at 5:30 pm in the council chambers.
The draft recommendation is to receive the report and hold a public meeting on Jan. 10.
