On Council agenda there is an agenda item of great interest to anyone on municipal services (water and wastewater): a presentation by Watson and Associates.   As our water rates are very much informed by the requirements of the Safe Drinking Water Act this presentation is a good way to understand why the Watson study for 2021 and the following years indicates the needs for rate increases.   The intent of the Jan. 11 Council agenda is not to make a decision on the rates nor to receive a recommendation from Staff as to what the rates should be; rather the Jan. 11 meeting is to understand the facts, so to speak.  As noted in the staff report the Watson study includes a recommended increase of 13% for 2021 and 3% annually thereafter through to 2029.  The Watson presentation is available now to review; but you can also hear a presentation on the live stream of the Council meeting.  Staff will be presenting a recommmendation for rates in the Jan. 25 Council; it will certainly consider the Watson study but also will be done with the perspective of Council’s direction for the 2021 budget i.e be as close to zero as possible.

If you wish to make a deputation to Council you can either send in an email to clerks@king.ca by noon Monday and it will be forwarded to Council members; to make a verbal deputation you need to  pre-register with the Clerk’s Division at 905-833-4068 or email clerks@king.ca by 12:00 p.m. (noon) on the day of the meeting.  For review of the timeline for both budget and water & wastewater rates visit speaking.king; and if you haven’t done so yet please take the budget survey on speaking.king.

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