La Broquerie Council has given third and final reading to a bylaw that will increase sewage rates year over year until 2021.

Reeve Lewis Weiss says the rate hikes will help cover the rising operating costs at their wastewater facilities.

“Whenever there are changes to the utility, obviously with phase one and two of the lagoon, growth of the town, there are changes and then as time goes on there are hikes in the cost of the utility.”

Quarterly sewage rates will go up from a minimum of $33 dollars for the average single-family home to $49 over the next three years.

Jenna Patterson is the Manager of Administration and Finance. She says the jump in operating costs at the wastewater facility includes the increased cost of nutrient removal requirements prior to discharging. She notes the process of increasing sewage rates began with an application from the municipality.

“In 2017 the municipality submitted an application to the Public Utilities Board requesting an increase in sewer rate and also the implementation of tipping fees for septic haulers. The application is the result of an increase in cost to operate the wastewater facility for both urban and rural residences.”

Patterson says they submitted the application a year and a half ago and it has now been approved by the Public Utilities Board. She says the tipping fees were implemented earlier this year.

“The Public Utilities Board had requested a number of years ago that La Broquerie implement tipping fees. That is the fees that are charged quarterly to the septic haulers accessing the wastewater facility. The tipping fees were actually ordered and implemented on April 1, 2018.”

Below is a chart showing the increasing sewage rates for the next three years.