Emily Plihal
Local Journalism
Initiative Reporter
At its regular meeting on Sept. 23, Northern Sunrise County decided to not change its tiered water rate.
On Aug. 26, county administration was asked to update the Tiered Water Rate Proposal with Peace River’s water rates and cost recovery rates for commercial water use.
“It was to look at what tiered water rates would be for commercial customers based on a cost recovery basis,” says Reeve Corinna Williams.
“Water is heavily subsidized by the County and council wanted to understand what the cost would be for full cost recovery for the commercial accounts. There was no desire to look at a cost recovery rate for residential users, as council understands the extra stressors of increased living costs.”
In late 2024, council requested a fair model based on usage, increased water rates for farm and commercial use. Administration then looked at what neighbouring municipalities were charging and put a comparison chart together to show the variances.
“NEW water Ltd (NwL) is a Part Nine company comprised of Northern Sunrise County, the Village of Nampa, Woodland Cree First Nation and Lubicon Lake Band #453,” explains Williams.
“Water is produced by NwL. and billed to the partners based on volumes. NwL sets their own water rates, and each partner bills their customers their own rate. Northern Sunrise County subsidizes the rates for their residents.”
Williams says council wanted a look at rates of other municipalities and towns to be competitive and understand what the true cost of water to deliver to residential and commercial would be.
“This gave us an opportunity to understand where we are compared to other jurisdictions,” she says.
“We are in the middle of other municipalities based on their scale. It is difficult to compare a true apples-to-apples as there are many different factors of treatment and where the water is coming from.”
Willams notes the County aims to keep the water rates low while still building a reserve for future repairs, which is fiscally responsible.