Provincial utility board approves Flin Flon water rate hike, with changes

A provincial regulatory board has approved higher water and sewer rate fees for Flin Flon residents—but lower ones than suggested earlier this year.

The Public Utilities Board (PUB) issued a report Oct. 29 that approved revised water and wastewater rates, starting January 1, 2025. The proposed rates will see increases and changes to existing City water policy for 2025 and for each year until 2028.

The fee schedule approved by the PUB is not the same as was proposed by the City earlier this year to erase utility deficits incurred in 2018 and 2022. The new schedule will mean Flin Flonners will pay more for their water and wastewater, but less than was originally asked for by the City.

The City originally applied to the PUB to revise water and wastewater rates last January, after a rate study conducted by the City and engineering firm Way To Go Consulting showed higher rates would be needed to cover both the deficits and repairs to Flin Flon’s municipal water system. A notice of application was issued by the PUB in February, calling for comments on the proposal - a total of 167 responses came in to the PUB about the change, with most “regarding the magnitude of the requested rate increases and mismanagement of the utility,” according to the report.

The PUB also requires the City to review its water and wastewater plans and file a report on them - along with any future changes to utility prices - by April 1, 2028.

The PUB has also approved the City’s request to address the utility deficits by issuing a rate rider - a fee of $1.69 per customer on every 1,000 gallons of water. The fee will be in place for either five years or until the total balance owed on the deficit - a total of $1,464,067, according to both the City and the PUB - is paid off, whichever comes first.

The PUB held a public meeting in August on the proposed change, one that filled the Flin Flon Community Hall with around a hundred attendees, including Flin Flon city councillors and administrators. Most members of the public were against the change as proposed. Following the meeting, the City revised its proposal to the PUB, lowering some of its proposed fees.

A full copy of the PUB report can be found at the board’s website at pubmanitoba.ca.

Costs

The rate approved by the PUB will see base water rates for 2025 actually decrease from 2024 levels, going from $12.33 per 1,000 gallons of water to $11.17 per 1,000 gallons of water, but adding on a $6.38 monthly service charge and a $7.21 per 1,000 gallon fee for wastewater. The original proposal to PUB was to add on a larger fee for wastewater and monthly service charges, as well as slightly increasing the base fee.

For unmetered customers - the vast majority of Flin Flon customers, according to both PUB and the City - services will go from $104.81 a month this year to $116.78 a month next year, with increases due each year until 2028. There, if the City’s rate rider is still in effect, unmetered monthly prices will hit $162.99 per month - $153.69 a month if the rider is resolved before then. The City’s original proposed structure would have seen unmetered monthly prices rise to $181.59 per month by 2028 if the rate rider was still in effect and $172.29 if not.

The new rates will also include a change in how minimum monthly charges are assessed for the City. The City’s previous minimum charge, assuming 6,000 gallons of water use per household per month, was $73.93 per month. That minimum will be lowered to about $26, starting in 2025. The original City proposal would have also included a lower minimum than is currently in place, but higher than confirmed by the PUB - $31.43, according to the original proposal.

The fee for disconnecting water service will also go up, going from $93.98 to an even $100 for 2025 - that fee is expected to stay the same for at least the next four years, according to the fee schedule, which is the same as the City’s original proposal. Bulk water fees will increase too, going from $12.33 per 1,000 gallons this year to $15.25 per 1,000 gallons next year up to $17.75 per 1,000 gallons in 2028 - down from the $181.59 proposed originally by the City.

Part of the money raised through the change will go toward repairing leaks in Flin Flon’s aging water and sewer system. The accepted rate of unaccounted-for water in any municipal water system, according to PUB, is 10 per cent - when the City conducted a water rate study in 2023, more than 48 per cent of the City’s water was unaccounted for, due in part to a series of leaks throughout the area. Targeted construction and repairs have since brought that number down by half since then, say senior City staff, but the amount lost is still above the PUB’s acceptable threshold. Some of the City’s unaccounted for water is down to the municipal use of bleeder lines, which circulate water through pipes continuously to keep lines from freezing during cold weather.

The prevalence of unmetered water use in Flin Flon has made it harder to predict how much water is used or wasted. In Flin Flon, between 85 and 90 per cent of homes are unmetered for water usage - City staff have mentioned potentially holding a campaign to promote water metering so better data can be found, but no plans have yet been announced.

While some projections for the City’s utility finances for 2023 and 2024 forecasted there may be more deficits, no such deficits were incurred last year and none are currently forecasted for this year. Forecasts for 2025 also show the City may break even financially on utilities with the rate change.

In September following the original PUB meeting, Flin Flon city councillors said that the increased costs were a hard, but necessary measure to pay off the costs.

“I want to make sure that we’re in agreement as a group about how we all feel. None of us like the proposal, but we have to make it. That has to be clear to everybody,” said Flin Flon Mayor George Fontaine during the Sept. 3 meeting.

“We’re looking at discussing what the proposal is, waiting to see what the response will be from the PUB, then seeing how we respond to their response. It’s not a closed book yet. We have to put a lot of thought into it and we understand the feelings of our residents - they’re the same as ours, but we have to see what is it we can do and what we’re allowed to, what position we’re actually stuck in.”