{"id":37321,"date":"2025-12-04T15:54:58","date_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:54:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=37321"},"modified":"2025-12-04T15:55:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-04T20:55:07","slug":"aurora-eyes-first-time-leak-forgiveness-program","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/aurora-eyes-first-time-leak-forgiveness-program\/","title":{"rendered":"Aurora eyes first-time leak forgiveness program"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

An unexpected, undetected leak can sometimes lead to a surprise on your water bill, but if you take the time to have it fixed, you could be eligible for some financial forgiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aurora is beginning the process of developing a forgiveness program for first-time leaks after Council gave the formal green light to a motion put forward by Mayor Tom Mrakas last week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Council unanimously approved the motion tasking staff to \u201cdevelop a program and policy for providing one-time high water consumption credits to coincide with the rollout of automated meter-read technology\u201d and to report back to Council on the potential program before it gets final approval.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cResidents of Aurora may experience unexpected and significant increases in their water bill due to undetected leaks,\u201d said Mayor Mrakas in his motion. \u201cOther York Region municipalities have successfully implemented water bill adjustment programs that provide financial assistance to homeowners facing high water bills resulting from leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThese programs offer a one-time credit of 50 per cent of the bill amount above the average, up to a maximum of $2,500, provided the leak is repaired and the usage returns to normal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The upcoming meter-read technology, he added, will help municipal staff and residents alike identify potential leaks sooner.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m just asking for staff to look at other municipalities and how they\u2019ve done this,\u201d Mayor Mrakas told his Council colleagues last week, \u201cto help those that end up with an astronomical bill due to no fault of their own. If that can be proven, some people do it in different ways, so I want staff to investigate that, bring us back a report with the possibility of implementing such a program, with the rollouts as well.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The idea received the broad support of Council, with Ward 2 Councillor Rachel Gilliland noting she was considering bringing something similar forward herself after being on the receiving end of a large water bill due to an undetected leak at a property outside of Ontario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She said in other jurisdictions where such a program has been put in place, impacted residents need to show they\u2019ve been proactive in solving the leak and suggested this should be the model for Aurora as well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The report, she added, should also address lost revenue on the municipality\u2019s side of the ledger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019d want to make sure staff come back with\u2026 where those funds would come from,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m assuming we would probably have some reserves within that bucket that could help cover it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Support was also offered by Ward 1 Councillor Ron Weese, who said he\u2019s heard from homeowners in his ward that have faced an unexpected financial hit due to unknown leaks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s painful to see and it just seems unfair,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, at the same time, he added, \u201csomebody has to pay.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rachel Wainwright-van Kessel, Aurora\u2019s Director of Finance, said Aurora sees just \u201ca couple\u201d of significant leaks per year that might result in an impact of more than $1,000 on the water bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne of the things is we are getting close to the automated read technology coming out and we really want to communicate that out to people because it will help homeowners manage their water as well, and it will help us also, as well as homeowners, identify leaks when they start,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

An unexpected, undetected leak can sometimes lead to a surprise on your water bill, but if you take the time to have it fixed, you could be eligible for some financial forgiveness. Aurora is beginning the process of developing a forgiveness program for first-time leaks after Council gave the formal green light to a motion […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-37321","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-9HX","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-22 00:28:59","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37321","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=37321"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37321\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37322,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37321\/revisions\/37322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37321"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37321"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}