Renfrew County Council is sounding an alarm that rural and small urban water and wastewater systems are financially unsustainable.
Coun. Neil Nicholson, Mayor of Whitewater Region, at a recent meeting, presented a motion on the unaffordability of rural and small urban water and wastewater systems, citing a study that shows Renfrew County residents, as a percentage of their household income, disproportionately pay for these services.
“In 2023, the township of Whitewater Region combined water and wastewater rates have risen to almost $3,000 per year for its 511 users and are amongst the highest in the county of Renfrew and across the province of Ontario,” said Nicholson.
There are similarly high user rates in the township of Madawaska Valley as a result of provincial regulations and a small number of users, he noted.
“Other examples of rapidly increasing rates include the towns of Deep River and Renfrew, where significant upgrades in short periods of time are making rates unaffordable, even with an increased number of users,” said Nicholson.
The motion, which received unanimous support from members of county council, will be circulated to all levels of government, as well as the Association of Municipalities of Ontario (AMO), the Rural Ontario Municipalities Association (ROMA) and the Federation of Canadian Municipalities (FCM) to examine if the unaffordability of water and wastewater system operational costs is systemic provincially and nationally.
A number of councillors spoke in support of the motion, including Laurentian Hills Mayor Anne Giardini, who said her municipality had to recently hold a public meeting to inform 471 users of the Chalk River water system about an $836,000-project needed to replace a water filter.
“It’s above and beyond their normal water bill and this is only going to get worse. There are only so many reserves that you can save for but with increasing costs for maintenance, replacement of aging infrastructure – I fully support all the advocacy that we can do,” she said.
Coun. Gary Serviss, Mayor of Petawawa, said he believes the motion could be applied to any municipality in the county with a water/wastewater system.
“We are a growing community but when we look ahead to what we might have to do based on the growth that we’re experiencing it’s quite frankly frightening, to think of the upgrades,” said Serviss, noting the municipality’s wastewater treatment plant is at 80 per cent.
(Written by Sherry Haaima)