City of Brandon proposing water rate hike; funding capital projects

The water that flows from your taps is getting more expensive.

As inflation continues to drive the cost of living upward, the City of Brandon has proposed a rate increase for water and wastewater utilities.

“Treatment systems are very capital intensive, very expensive, and unfortunately with that comes significant rates that are needed to pay for those systems,” says Dean Hammond, general manager of corporate services for the City of Brandon.

The rate increases that were voted in favour of at Monday’s Brandon city council meeting are necessary, according to Hammond, in order to meet general operating costs and supporting capital projects.

“We’re doing some significant projects in the city,” Hammond says, “including $125 million upgrade to the water treatment plant, as well as the construction of a lift station in the southwest corner of the city.”

City council also voted in favour of borrowing $30 million for proposed lift stations which would be located along Patricia Avenue in the city’s south end, one at 34th Street and one at 18th Street.

The first rate increase would be in July 2023, with water rates going from $1.66 to $2.15. Wastewater would go from $1.63 to $2.00. Annual increases in January from 2024 to 2026 would see the rates climb to $6.11 for both utilities combined.

Annual totals based on a household consumption of 46 cubic metres of water would nearly double by 2026 as well, going from the current annual total of $675 to $1,211.

Hammond says the rates the city is proposing are in line with rates throughout the prairie provinces, which underscores that water is a precious resource. “We need to treat it as such, both when we’re consuming it and taking it out of the river, as well as when we’re putting it back into the river.”

Some taxpayers aren’t happy with the rate hike.

“It’s not something that the people of Brandon need right now,” says Mike Hildebrand. “Everything’s going up when is it going to end?”

“The city doesn’t make money except from taxpayers, right?” says Larry Devries. “It doesn’t matter what you do, the taxpayer’s, the person, that’s paying for it.”

The rates still need to be reviewed and approved by the Public Utility Board before they come into effect.