BARRIE - Barrie’s $320,906 annual savings from a newly-approved water meter and billing system will not necessarily show up on household invoices, said city staff.
“It will have a positive effect on rates,” said corporate services general manager Ed Archer. “But whether that means rates go down is based on several other factors in addition to the cost of billing and metering.”
These variables include the price of treatment chemicals and the costs associated with legislative compliance – which have skyrocketed in the wake of the Walkerton tragedy.
“Even if we save half of what is projected on the operating side of things, I’ll be satisfied with this change,” said Ward 7 Coun. John Brassard.
A change was necessitated by PowerStream’s mandated introduction of smart meters to remotely track electricity usage as of January 2011. This new, automatic metering system renders the current partnership between the utility and the city obsolete. Previously, PowerStream had continued the Barrie Hydro practice of providing manual water metering and subsequent billing services in tandem with its parallel hydro system allowing both service providers to share costs.
After conducting research, city staff provided council with several options, including a recommended plan to automate its own meters and bring the entire service in-house, a move expected to improve customer service and lower overall costs.
The transition is expected to be complete by Oct. 1, 2011.
With Ward 2 Coun. Jeff Lehman and Ward 5 Coun. Lynn Strachan providing the only dissenting votes (due, they said, to a lack of information), the motion to act upon staff recommendations was approved.
mlawson@simcoe.com