Utility rates for single-family homes in Port Moody won’t go up nearly as much next year as initially proposed.
In a fees bylaw that went before council Tuesday for its first three readings, water and sewer rates will remain unchanged from 2018. In a report, Port Moody’s manager of financial planning, Tyson Ganske, said once final figures came in from Metro Vancouver’s 2019-’23 financial plan, the city was able to hold the line on those charges, which had been anticipated to rise to $447 for water and $341 for sewer in its own draft financial plan that was released last October.
Instead, single-family homeowners will be billed $432 for water and $332 for sewer.
The portion of Port Moody’s annual utility charges going to pay for the processing of green waste will still increase more than 20%, to $238, to cover increased costs.
The city is being forced to find a new contractor to handle its green waste after its previous contractor, Massachusetts-based Harvest Power, announced last August it was ceasing operations rather than pay for costly upgrades to the composting system at its Richmond facility to comply with stricter air quality regulations.
Most other fees for city services for things like building permits, business licences, tree removal and filming permits will go up by about 2.5% to reflect increases in the cost of living.
The fees bylaw is expected to be adopted at council’s next meeting, on Nov. 27.
