The average St. Catharines resident’s water bill will go up $15 this year after city council passed water and wastewater rates Monday.
Broken down, the hike is an estimated $4.39 for tap water and $10.70 for wastewater, for a total $15.09.
To get a sense of how much people are really paying for water, city staff compared the cost of St. Catharines tap water with bottled water.
The same amount of St. Catharines tap water costs a little more than five cents.
“If you were only buying bottled water, that works out to about $182 a year.
When you compare this to tap water, that would equal about $4.93,” she told council.
With the increased bills, St. Catharines ratepayers will pay an average $778.44 total a year for 174 cubic metres of water and wastewater.
City council was told the average $778.44 bill is the second lowest of 11 comparator single-tier and lower-tier municipalities.
It was also the second-lowest bill of nine Niagara municipalities.
Based on average water/wastewater bill for consumption of 174 cubic metres Fort Erie – $1,305.74 Port Colborne – $1,142.79 (2016 rates) Welland – $1,058.29 Niagara-on-the-Lake – $986.03 Niagara Falls – $881.07 (2016 rates) Thorold – $865.04 (2016 rates) Lincoln – $853.83 St. Catharines – $778.44 Pelham – $682.83 — From City of St. Catharines, March 27, 2017