North Battleford lawmakers reviewed the UPAR rate portion of residential customers' utility bills in response to some concerns they received. (file photo/battlefordsNOW Staff)

By Angela Brown

Concerns answered

N.B. residents to see UPAR rate portion of utility bill abated

Jul 19, 2019 | 11:27 AM

Those concerned about changes to a bylaw that resulted in an increase to their Underground Pipeline and Asphalt Replacement (UPAR) rates will see a reprieve.

North Battleford city council approved changes earlier this year to equalize meter fixed rates between residential and commercial customers. The bylaw change also caused the underground infrastructure flat rates (based on meter size) for residential customers to be equalized with commercial customers at the same time. As a result, infrastructure rates for residential customers increased.

In response to customers’ complaints about an increase in the infrastructure portion of their bills, North Battleford council decided to revisit the matter and abate the UPAR rate accordingly, to return to the 2018 rates. Council agreed in preparing this year’s budget there would be no need to increase the UPAR levy for 2019 so members wanted to keep their promise.

“We have to stand by our thoughts and processes of what we wanted to do as council, so I think we need to take these requirements back to the levels from last year,” Coun. Greg Lightfoot said.

Lawmakers amended the bylaw at council’s recent meeting to return the underground infrastructure rates portion of the utility bill to the 2018 amounts for five-eighth of an inch to one inch residential meter-size properties.

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For monthly rates for underground infrastructure, the sewage service charge will return to $13.30, instead of the $17.09 current rate; and the water charges will go back down to $10.67 from $12.37. The total infrastructure charges will revert to the old rate of $23.97 instead of $29.46, for a $5.49 reduction in their bill.

“This will reflect the intent of the UPAR discussion during budget, that the amount collected is the same as it was in 2018,” Mayor Ryan Bater said.

City Manager Randy Patrick said in his report there is no direct impact to the budgeted infrastructure revenue by returning to the 2018 residential rates, since they were not set in the budgeting process for the UPAR work.

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angela.brown@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @battlefordsNOW