ATIKOKAN - To bring Atikokan’s water and sewer rate up to the provincial standard of self-sufficiency, council determined that a simplified approach for ratepayers would be to increase the cost of water and sewer by three per cent every for the next 10 years.
“Moving it up incrementally, we have a plan for the next 10 years to increase. The province would like to get us where it’s 100 per cent paid by the users, but we do have some workarounds,” Atikokan Mayor Rob Ferguson said.
Ferguson said council was in favour of a three per cent increase.
Treasurer Brandy Coulson informed Council that their current asset management plan recommended an increase of 2.8 per cent sewer rate increase and a 1.8 per cent water rate increase over the next 20 years. However, staff directed council in increasing water and sewer to three per cent for the next 10 years instead, which works out to a $30 per year increase for residential properties.
“There is cost there. There is a little bit of a cost associated with Northern Waterworks, but we try to keep up to stay within inflation and cover our costs. We could freeze it for a year or two, but then we are going to get hit with a big cost,” Ferguson said.
Council decided that smaller incremental payments would be preferred over a lump sum at the later date.
According to Coulson’s report, the three per cent increase will be levied, resulting in an approximate revenue increase of $48,500 for the town.
