The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
Jonathon Naylor Editor Flin Flon's new water treatment plant could cost half a million dollars a year to run, essentially guaranteeing higher utility bills for residents. The city estimates the plant will, in very rough terms, draw annual expenses of $500,000 once it becomes operational this spring or summer. 'There's going to be some sort of increase to the utility rates, that part is pretty much certain,' said Municipal Administrator Mark Kolt. Speaking at Tuesday's city council meeting, Kolt said it's not clear how much higher the rates _ currently $859 a year for every homeowner _ will go. At some point this year, the city will conduct a study to determine where rates need to be in order to cover the substantial new cost of the water plant. Determining rates will be much easier once the plant is activated. Until then, Kolt said, 'all we've got is an informed guess as to what it's going to cost us.' Kolt said provincial law requires municipalities to fund their utility systems strictly with revenue from consumers. 'So if there are higher costs, the rates that are charged out have got to go up,' he said. 'You're not allowed to take that from general taxation, and there is no government program that fills in the gap for that.' In less than three years after the city opened its sewage treatment plant in 2005, council voted three times to boost utility rates to help cover that facility's annual tab of about $500,000. See 'Resid...' on pg. 6 Continued from pg. 6 Between June 1, 2005 and Jan. 1, 2008, the utility bills _ which come to residents in the form of a green slip _ more than doubled, from $376 a year to $859. But that does not necessarily mean residents will see a similarly sharp hike due to the new water treatment plant. For one, previous city councils were told to use up their sizable utility surplus before raising rates, so when rates finally did increase, they did so quickly and drastically. For another, although the water plant may cost $500,000 a year to run, other parts of the city's utility system are shutting down as a result of the facility. Thus the total increase to the utility system could fall somewhere below $500,000, but no firm estimate on that figure was readily available from the city. Of course there may also be fears that projected operating costs at the water plant, approximate as they may be, could end up significantly lower than the real price tag. After all, the city expected the sewage plant would cost some $300,000 a year to run. The actual tab ended up being about $500,000 _ nearly 70 per cent higher. But Coun. Bill Hanson, chair of the city's Engineering Service Committee, said the sewage plant had 'a lot more unknown variables' than the water plant does. Added Kolt, in reference to the water plant: 'In theory there should be less to go wrong.' Staffing is one major cost related to the water plant. The facility has prompted a reorganization of staff with the net effect being two additional workers. Power consumption will also be a major cost, though Coun. Hanson said the amount of chlorine required should be about the same as it is currently. While the federal and provincial governments have given millions to help the city build the water plant, those levels of government contribute nothing to its operational costs. There is no firm date for the official opening of the water plant, but it is expected to be between late April and the summer. The Manitoba government mandated the city build the plant to allow Flin Flon to meet tighter water quality standards. 'It was done because the provincial government feels that these things are necessary for the sake of safety,' Kolt said, 'but they come at a cost and we're not getting help from the province in dealing with the long-term operation.'
