Town of Drumheller council adopted the 2025 Utility Operating and Capital budgets, which were presented during the regular Monday, November 4 council meeting.
Chief Financial Officer Victoria Chan explained the 2025 Utility Operating budgets of $4.6 million for water, $2.9 million for wastewater, and $517,430 for solid waste and recycling have managed to be balanced without necessitating subsidization from the Town’s 2025 Operating and Capital budgets through property tax revenues. This will also include an anticipated surplus of $500,100 for water operations which Ms. Chan noted could be contributed to reserves to help offset future maintenance and repairs or reduce financing requirements.
While these utilities can be supported through its user-pay system, Ms. Chan explained in order to accommodate rising costs, including the addition of two new positions for Plant Operator and Assistant Lead Plant Operator at the water treatment facility, as well as increasing costs for chemicals, natural gas, and other necessary items for operation, administration is proposing a five per cent increase to water rates in 2025, and a six per cent increase to wastewater rates.
Ms. Chan explained, for the average residential user, based on an average monthly consumption of 20 cubic metres, this would result in an estimated increase from $2.3058 per cubic metre to $2.4210 per cubic metre in 2025 for water servicing, and for wastewater from $2.5579 per cubic mitre to $2.7113 per cubic metre.
When comparing Drumheller to other municipalities with similar populations, Ms. Chan shared Drumheller residents are spending less than residents in the other municipalities, including Drayton Valley, High River, and Lacombe.
Average monthly water charges for the comparable municipalities was $70.46, while Drumheller residents pay $64.27; residents of Drayton Valley pay an estimated $80.89 per month for the same water consumption, while High River residents pay $95.44 per month and Lacombe residents pay $87.40.
Likewise, with wastewater the average cost was $67.84 while Drumheller residents pay $61.93 per month; Drayton Valley was slightly below this at $55 per month while High River residents paid $89.20 and Lacombe residents paid $84.06.
Even with the proposed increase, Drumheller residents would still pay below the average.
Council gave first and second reading to the proposed 2025 Utility Rates Bylaw; the item will come back for third reading at a future council meeting.
