County debating utility rate changes

By John Watson Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Wheatland County is considering changes to its utility rates, following the presentation of three scenarios during the Aug. 19 Committee of the Whole meeting. 

During his presentation, Joel Chiasson, manager of financial services, clarified the proposed rate changes do not affect debenture loan rates for repaying county debt for utility infrastructure.

The first option proposed to the committee suggested a seven per cent increase, which would be consistent with increases in 2024 and 2025. Chiasson added this option may be more consistent with meeting long-term infrastructure requirements and mitigating subsidization from general revenues.

“Sometimes CPI (consumer price index), there is a variety of ways to measure it and different sources, so what we did in this case for the Alberta CPI is, we used the source from Stats Canada, it is the annual average change from 2023 to 2024, just knowing that the 2024 was the last completed full calendar year,” he said. “With the municipal price index, what we did there is, during the budget development time, we had the municipal price index presented from the overall county perspective. When we built that data set, we allowed ourselves the flexibility to identify certain functions and not just the county overall.”

Option two, based on the municipal price index, suggested a 2.32 per cent increase. Option three, based on the consumer price index, suggested a 2.9 per cent increase.

Chiasson explained a one per cent increase equals approximately $14,000 in total revenue for the county. 

Options two and three utilize statistical inflationary references. The consumer price index may not be reflective of the types of price pressures experienced with specific services and is not a historical reference point. 

The municipal price index is suggested by administration to be a better fit to the service itself in terms of the mix or types of costs related to utilities.

Coun. Shannon Laprise said it may be reasonable for the county to set a target of achieving 50 per cent cost recovery on utility services, particularly water and wastewater, but beyond that may be unfeasible. 

“We are covering about 42 per cent of the full cost of services … I just do not see that we can get to 100 per cent. We want to encourage people to live in our hamlets, we are trying to encourage that, and we do not want to fragment all of our agriculture land. We still need to encourage this,” she said. “I think we need to set a target, whether it takes 10 years, I do not know, and then we can start to apply a municipal price index that we should use going forward once we get to the point where we are satisfied that we have a fair rate that is affordable.”

As the discussion was during a committee of the whole meeting, no decision was made formally by council. The report for the time being was accepted as information.