Back to SearchThe City of Yellowknife (the City) is undertaking a review of water and sewer rates and has released an Interim Report that provides recommendations for establishing separate water and sewer rates, while ensuring that these rates are tied to the actual cost of providing water and sewer services. Residents are encouraged to provide feedback and ask any questions via the City’s PlaceSpeak website.
The Interim Report was developed by InterGroup Consultants, a firm that specializes in utility rate design and has over 20 years of experience in the North and in many smaller and remote communities in Canada’s south. The recommendations provided are based on a detailed Cost of Service model as well as generally accepted principles of utility rate design as stipulated in the American Water Works Association Manual, the industry standard.
In addition to the establishment of separate water and sewer rates, key findings and recommendations of the Interim Report include:
- Based on the Cost of Service model, current water and sewer rates are covering the costs to operate the system. However, some customers are paying more than the cost of providing them with services, while other customers are paying less than the cost of service. For example, trucked water and sewer rates are only recovering about 75 percent of the cost of service. Best practices dictate that the cost of service should fall into a range of reasonableness of between 90 percent and 110 percent of the cost of service.
- The Interim Report recommends a phased approach to rate rebalancing is taken. This would result in an increase in trucked services rates of five percent per year for 2024, 2025, and 2026. For average use customers, this amounts to between $9 and $10 per month in 2024, 2025, and 2026. Once fully implemented, these trucked service customers will see their total bill increase by about $340 per year by 2026. Some commercial and multi-residential users on the piped water and sewer system will see their rates decrease, with no changes proposed for residential customers on the piped system.
A number of other recommendations are also provided, such as the simplifying of rates and utility bills to ensure customers can easily understand them and some technical recommendations.
Residents can provide input until July 4, 2023. This information will be included in a Final Report, which will be presented to Council before the decision process begins. Council would then consider proposed changes. If approved by Council, the recommendations would be implemented in January 2024.
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Media inquiries please contact:
Richard McIntosh
Communications Advisor
867-920-5600
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