Condominium owners confronted mayor and council about the steep utility fee increases (for water, specifically) for condominiums at the Village council meeting on Monday.
Several condo owners, and members of local strata boards got up to speak out against the increase that nearly doubled the original fee of $50 to $120 a quarter per unit, sparking a debate on fairness, necessity, accountability and lack of communication on behalf of the Village.
Many of the residents were outraged and completely unaware of the increase, despite council reassuring the gallery that proper protocol had been followed as early as October of last year to inform condo residents of the impending increase.
Barbara Dramer a condo resident who brought the matter to council’s attention, pointed out that historically their annual metre cap had been set at 2400 cubic metres, which has now been bumped up to almost double the amount.
“Now we’re being allotted 4800 cubic metres in a year — we can’t use that much water, we can’t park RVs, we can’t wash cars, we can’t possibly use that amount of water, so we’re always going to be under,” she said. “We’re being billed almost double for almost twice the amount of water which puts us on the same par as a single family dwelling…I can look out my 900 square foot condo at my neighbour with his car and his RV that looks like a greyhound bus and his lawns…they need a lot of water, and we have no capacity for that.”
The majority of attendees cited confusion and distress over the issue, and reported the increase substantial for elderly residents on a fixed income, as well as shocking for secondary home owners, who will be unsettled when they arrive to find their new utility bills.
Dramer, suggested that balancing out the equation in services by providing access to recycling and waste management programs could create the equilibrium, ruffled condo owners are looking for, as a means to substantiate the increase.
“I would urge council to please review these fee increases and to consider a fairer and more proportionate method of charging residents for utilities,” she said.
Despite complimenting financial officer Tracey Jones on outlining the increase in the billing change, Dramer cited the increases as grossly unfair.
“It doesn’t make it right or fair, it doesn’t even make common sense when you look at the specific circumstances of condo dwellers, in that we’re being charged for twice as much water as our metres show we can use or need. This has resulted in a portion of the population feeling targeted and marginalized by their municipal government,” she said.
On the issue of communication mayor Facio, imparted that letters were sent to individual strata councils, to inform residents, as well as tapping into other public resources to extend invitations to public open houses.
“There were several open meetings that were all published, and those areas were discussed in length by council and when we got to the financial portion of it, that was also discussed following the open house — the public was there to ask questions of the plan and no one said a word,” he said.
Members of the gallery, responded that informing condo owners of the rate increase was not a strata responsibility, and that each unit should have been apprised of the changes, individually.
“We’re in Laguna, there’s 90 units and 80 per cent of those dwellers don’t even live here, they live in Alberta, or Germany or wherever. They only come here on occasion, so are they going to rely on something posted on a notice board or wherever to see what their increase is going to be? And they’re not even using the water, they’re going out into the lake,” said Strata Vice Chair for Laguna Beach, Bob Perry. “We as strata owners have to be advised personally by the mail system through some form of mailing to let us know “here we’re going to charge you an extra 47 per cent in your water usage,” at least, they will have been given notice…most of the people here today weren’t given notice.”
Facio, addressed the fee increase, citing the expense of the Water Plant as one of the main reasons for the fee increase.
“We were forced by Fraser Health to put in the water plant, this is a fixed asset that needs to be paid for, it has to be tested everyday, and there is maintenance. I think the Village should be congratulated for putting that plant in and I’ve been told it’s a ten for quality of water, and it’s a system that’s expensive to keep — we’re trying to cover the costs of operating the plant and we’re not going to be able to do that unless everybody is on par, water is like oil today, it’s precious, and we’re trying to maintain that” said Facio.