To the editor:
I was reading my father's water bill and I was shocked to see it was just over $100.
But the actual volumentric charge for water usage was $10. What? Ten cubic meters of water and the bill is $100. That's $10 a cubic meter! Something has to be wrong here.
I was reading my father's water bill and I was shocked to see it was just over $100.
But the actual volumentric charge for water usage was $10. What? Ten cubic meters of water and the bill is $100. That's $10 a cubic meter! Something has to be wrong here.
So then I looked at my bill and its $131.20 using 33 cubic meters of water and that's $3.98 per cubic meter volumentric charge. Why conserve? I've got a few problems with the water bill.
First, a metre is used for distance and a litre is used for volume.
I'm assuming a cubic metre is suppose to be 1,000 litres and 1,000 litres is 1 kilolitre. I learned that in Grade 3.
Perhaps the city can use the proper terminology when talking about volume. If a cubic metre isn't 1,000 litres then spell it out in the bill so it makes some sense.
Second, there has to be something wrong with $90 in charges for $10 worth of water.
Yes you have a fixed cost of $0.4822 a day and a sewer charge of that plus your usage multiplied by 0.75 or 75 per cent.
So you really pay more for sewage than you do for water. But in this day and age you can't conserve on sewage you can only conserve on water. But why bother since you are still going to pay this huge sewage bill.
This brings me to third problem I have. If you use no water at all, not one drop you still have a bill. Fixed cost of 91 days at $0.4822 / day equals $43.88 plus 75 per cent of usage and fixed cost.
In this case 75 per cent of $43.88 = $32.91. The total water bill is $76.79 and you have not used any water. And you can't even go to any competition for a better rate.
When you do as much as possible to conserve and still get a $100 bill, something is wrong.
My sewage charge is 169 per cent of my water charge and my father’s sewage charge is 461 per cent of the actual water charge.
Both of us live in Westfort. Did you also know you pay a fee on your city tax bill for sewage/drainage? Why are we paying so much for the sewers?
Maybe our city councillors should spend more time coming up with a better water billing system, something that is a little more fair instead of worrying about the city selling bottled water at city venues. The city shouldn't be selling bottled water at all.
They have a product that comes out of a tap. What more can we do to cut our own costs? Maybe our next set of councillors will do something. But if it’s the same group we have now, don't hold your breath. They will probably want some type of committee to study it first.
That’s all the city needs is another committee.
Steve Safronuk,
Thunder Bay
First, a metre is used for distance and a litre is used for volume.
I'm assuming a cubic metre is suppose to be 1,000 litres and 1,000 litres is 1 kilolitre. I learned that in Grade 3.
Perhaps the city can use the proper terminology when talking about volume. If a cubic metre isn't 1,000 litres then spell it out in the bill so it makes some sense.
Second, there has to be something wrong with $90 in charges for $10 worth of water.
Yes you have a fixed cost of $0.4822 a day and a sewer charge of that plus your usage multiplied by 0.75 or 75 per cent.
So you really pay more for sewage than you do for water. But in this day and age you can't conserve on sewage you can only conserve on water. But why bother since you are still going to pay this huge sewage bill.
This brings me to third problem I have. If you use no water at all, not one drop you still have a bill. Fixed cost of 91 days at $0.4822 / day equals $43.88 plus 75 per cent of usage and fixed cost.
In this case 75 per cent of $43.88 = $32.91. The total water bill is $76.79 and you have not used any water. And you can't even go to any competition for a better rate.
When you do as much as possible to conserve and still get a $100 bill, something is wrong.
My sewage charge is 169 per cent of my water charge and my father’s sewage charge is 461 per cent of the actual water charge.
Both of us live in Westfort. Did you also know you pay a fee on your city tax bill for sewage/drainage? Why are we paying so much for the sewers?
Maybe our city councillors should spend more time coming up with a better water billing system, something that is a little more fair instead of worrying about the city selling bottled water at city venues. The city shouldn't be selling bottled water at all.
They have a product that comes out of a tap. What more can we do to cut our own costs? Maybe our next set of councillors will do something. But if it’s the same group we have now, don't hold your breath. They will probably want some type of committee to study it first.
That’s all the city needs is another committee.
Steve Safronuk,
Thunder Bay
