Citing significant cost pressures, the City of West Kelowna is increasing fees for water utility use.
On Tuesday, council gave the first three readings to an amendement to its Fees and Charges Bylaw to increase the rate, which is to be in effect as of January 1 of this year.
It will increase fees by 15% for users of the Pritchard, West Kelowna Estates, Sunnyside and Lakeview water systems and 10% for West Bank water system users.
That works out to an increase of $49 to $58 dollars each year for a single-family home.
The last water utility increase happened in July 2015 at 15%.
Mayor Doug Findlater says the increase is needed for significant capital investments, including a new $53 million Rose Valley water treatment plant.
“The good news is, potentially, we can get up to 83% of that through grant funding from the federal and provincial infrastructure program,” he says “We’ve got our fingers crossed and we’re lobbying furiously, but even in that best case scenario we would have to put up 17%, which would be about $8 million and we don’t have that in the bank”.
Grant funding announcements for the Clean Water and Wastewater Fund are expected early this year.
Upgrades also need to be done to the Westbank water treatment plant and the upland storage, which stores water.
A Water Rate Study, which is supposed to suggest rates that will meet the capital requirements, is nearly completed but the city is waiting until it finds out how much money it will receive through the grant.