{"id":23462,"date":"2019-04-04T19:48:52","date_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:48:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=23462"},"modified":"2019-04-04T19:49:01","modified_gmt":"2019-04-04T23:49:01","slug":"water-rates-set-to-rise-2-2-per-cent-this-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/water-rates-set-to-rise-2-2-per-cent-this-year\/","title":{"rendered":"Water rates set to rise 2.2 per cent this year"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Average Aurora homeowners can\nexpect to see a $26.72 increase on their 2019 water bills, following the\napproval of the municipal budget at Council last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council signed off on the\nBudget last week, a document which includes the Capital, Operating and Water,\nWastewater and Stormwater Budgets for 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This year, homeowners can\nexpect to see a combined increase of 2.2 per cent on their overall water bill. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Broken down further, this\nrate of 2.2 per cent, which is a combined rate when bills for water services,\nwastewater and stormwater are weighted, accounts for an 8.5 increase in water\nservices, a 2.6 per cent reduction in wastewater costs, and an increase of 3\nper cent on the stormwater rate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis year, the water budgets\nhave been developed collaboratively with input from Operations, Billing\nAdministration and Financial Planning staff,\u201d said Laura Sheardown, Financial\nAnalysist for the Town of Aurora, in her final report to Council last week.\n\u201cOperating costs have been reviewed in detail and adjusted where considered\nappropriate. During the development of the tax funded operating budget, the\nallocation of corporate overhead to utility budgets was reviewed and adjusted\nto reflect actual costs and time allocations of staff directly and indirectly\nsupporting rate funded operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe greatest challenge in\ndeveloping utility budgets is the estimation of the anticipated water volumes\nthat will be purchased from the Region of York. These estimated water volumes\nare utilized to estimate both wholesale water purchase and wastewater treatment\ncosts. In addition, these volume estimates also drive the Town\u2019s estimated\nretail revenue budgets. The Town predominantly relies upon York Region flow\nestimates which are, in some instances, adjusted based upon other analysis\nundertaken by the Town. Consequently, if actual water volumes differ materially\nfrom estimates, the impact on financial services can be material as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another contributing factor\nto the water rate increase this year is an increase in consumption compared to\n2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Council report attributes\nthis increase to a drier-than-normal summer and the forecast for 2019 considers\nthe increased growth in Aurora.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Region of York\u2019s goals\nare another cost contributor and has, on average, accounted for an average\nincrease of 10 per cent costs on the water Aurora must buy wholesale from the\nupper tier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs part of their long range\nfinancial plan, the Region of York has previously announced that they intend to\ncontinue their progressive increase of wholesale water rates,\u201d said Ms.\nSheardown. \u201cThe Town has estimated an increase of nine per cent for 2019.\nSimilar increases are expected to continue for the next several years as the\nRegion increases its contributions to reserves for infrastructure\nsustainability for the related water assets.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the increase of water\nusage overall last year due to weather, the report notes that demand per\nhousehold continues to decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

New construction and\nrenovation, she says, is focusing more and more on improved water efficiency in\nhomes, including new fixtures while businesses are looking to reduce their\nwater consumption as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith water rates increasing\nand the resultant increases in the household water billings, families are\nbecoming more sensitive and wise in how they use and improve conservation\nwithin their homes,\u201d says Ms. Sherdown. \u201cWater demand is seemingly fairly elastic\nto price increases.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In some cases, residents are\nseeing their water consumption go down simply by giving up on their lawns.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report says that the\nrestriction on outdoor pesticide and herbicide use has resulted in a\n\u201csignificant infestation\u201d of dandelions and other weeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWith the increasingly\ndifficult fight against these invaders, together with price sensitivity of\nincreasing rates, many families have simply stopped watering or significantly\nreduced watering their lawns, further reducing demand per household. The\nweather during the summer months has an unpredictable impact on forecasted\nwater consumption. A review of historical consumption data reveals a clear\ncorrelation between the weather experienced in the summer months and water\nconsumption. Water projections attempt to address volatility in water\nconsumption due to seasonal impacts through the consideration of a historical\naverage water consumption. This input, along with growth and water efficiency\nprojections, are all considered when arriving at water flow projections.\u201d<\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Average Aurora homeowners can expect to see a $26.72 increase on their 2019 water bills, following the approval of the municipal budget at Council last week.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-66q","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-15 18:03:58","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}