Prior to her retirement, Patricia Walker indicated to me that council would be looking at how sewer capital costs are collected from Oak Bay homeowners later in 2016.
Obviously, the pending costs of building a sewage treatment plant and the mayor’s recent comments that the average water user will see an increase of $55 next year, have prompted me to once again ask if there are plans to remove the inequity of including outdoor water consumption from the equation when recovering the capital costs of sewage treatment as Saanich has done.
By the way, what is an average water user?
Also, the 2007 minutes from the committee of whole reducing the 70/30 ratio to 60/40 doesn’t make any sense to me. If sewage capital costs are to be recovered via a consumption tax, then it should be based 100 per cent on the sewage discharge from a home, as long as outdoor water consumption is removed from the equation, as Saanich does.
If not, it should be 100 per cent on property tax bills.
David Anderson
Oak Bay