It’s Official: Your Water Bill Will Be Going Up Every Year

Call it a liquid asset.

The city of Toronto has voted to hike your water bill by nine percent this year starting March 1st. And that’s just the start.

The move, which wasn’t unexpected, had been debated for the last month and was finally passed by councillors on Wednesday. The final vote was 30-11.

But because the hike can’t be made retroactive to January, you’ll actually be paying slightly more in 2007 – about 10.8 percent.

The increase means that, depending on how much you use, you’ll be shelling out an extra $40 on your water bill for 2007 or about $3 and change a month.

But that’s nothing compared to what big businesses will be forced to endure.

The larger companies in Toronto will be paying around $1.5 million a year, a jump of more than $125,000.

What’s the reason more of your money will be going down the financial drain? In a word, infrastructure.

The city’s sewer and water distribution system is anywhere between 50 and 100 years old in places.

And it’s been breaking down frequently, leading to broken water mains, burst pipes and even road erosion.

Significant sinkholes have opened up in a number of places in Toronto over the past few months, and almost all of them have been caused by water emanating from old conduits.

The city responds to between 1,600 and 2,000 burst pipes a year. And there’s already an $80 million backlog in repairs.

The effect on traffic, business and home owners has been significant.

In April of last year, a water main burst near Sheppard and Senlac, causing the street to crumble. It took almost a month to fix, as residents were forced to find alternate routes and store owners waited in vain for customers.

And it’s not just the pavement.

At the end of October, a main break affected phone service and businesses along a stretch of Sheppard near Kennedy Rd.

That same week, there were mini-floods along Markham and Kingston Rds., Lake Shore and Spadina, Eastern and Broadview and Pape and Cosburn.

Residents in the Islington and Albion area had their basements flooded in mid-December, when a broken main sent litres of H20 gushing into their cellars.

And last September, it was revealed that raw sewage had been flowing into the Don River from Massey-Taylor Creek in the Don Mills-D.V.P area because of leaky pipes.

So as much as taxpayers may not like pouring out just a little more money, politicians and other experts assure they have no choice.

“Within ten years, you’re going to have trouble driving down the streets of Toronto, because we’re going to have the kind of water main leaks, breaks, sinkholes that we’ve been seeing now but accelerating,” predicted Ian Woodbury, whose company Rivaonline.com analyzes the city’s infrastructure.

“This is part of a nine-year plan that brings us to a state of good repair,” outlined Councillor Shelley Carroll.

 “We have aging infrastructure. We have a number of things we need to do to get ready for the next extreme weather event and citizens know that now. And so they know we have to play catch-up.”

Translation: this is just the first of many nine percent hikes coming between now and 2011, as the race to turn the flood into a mere trickle continues.

• To report a water main break in your area, call (416) 338-8888. 

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