Will a new government drive water rates up?

Sep 14, 2007

To the Editor:

As the owners and senior managers of public water departments and utilities, members of the Ontario Municipal Water Association (OMWA) take very seriously our responsibility to deliver clean, safe drinking water at an affordable price to our water customers.

The OMWA believes that the new safety standards and rules put in place since 2000, as recommended by the Walkerton inquiry, were necessary to restore and maintain the public’s confidence in Ontario’s public drinking water.

Now that the regulatory landscape has stabilized, municipal water professionals are focusing on meeting these new rules, while upgrading plants, replacing aging pipes, and finding operational efficiencies to keep water rates in check into the future.

However, there is significant concern amongst municipal leaders that a new wave of government regulation is just around the corner, which would have an enormous impact on water rates once again. This time, however, the increased cost of water would not be spent on improving the safety of our drinking water, but rather to pay for an increase in the administrative burden in delivering the water.

Such a direction was outlined in provincial government-commissioned report, which suggested creating a provincial oversight board modeled on, and possibly run by, the Ontario Energy Board (OEB), to scrutinize and approve the administration and rate setting of approximately 700 local water operations. History has proven that similar oversight by the OEB has resulted in approximately a 10-15 per cent increase in electricity rates. Given successive governments’ inability to control the electricity sector’s bureaucracy and debt in Ontario, recommending that a similar model be imposed on the water sector is simply baffling and unacceptable.

The OMWA believes that the only way to guarantee both the safety and the cost-effective delivery of our drinking water is to maintain the current system of oversight by local municipal government and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.

Water customers deserve to know the next Ontario government’s vision for maintaining the delivery of safe drinking water at an affordable cost. That is why the OMWA has sent a survey to each of the four leading political parties, asking each of them to state clearly their plans for the Ontario water sector, and their response to the Watertight recommendations.

Responses of the political parties to the survey will be posted publicly on the OMWA website in the last week of September at www.omwa.org. We encourage all those who depend on public drinking water to check out the results of this important survey.

Diane Gagner
President, OMWA, on behalf of the OMWA board of directors