City residents to pay more for several services in 2025
By Lethbridge Herald on October 12, 2024.
Al Beeber
Lethbridge Herald
Lethbridge residents will be paying higher rates for several services in 2025 if city council approves four bylaws this fall.
The Economic and Finance Standing Policy Committee of city council on Thursday recommended in an omnibus bill that council give first reading to four bylaws at its Oct. 22 meeting and consider second and third readings at the Nov. 26 meeting.
The SPC consists of mayor and all council members.
The increases are not new – they were all approved in the 2023-26 operating budget but the matters had to be brought up as due process. They were addressed at the SPC so members of the public could have a chance to address any of them but nobody in the audience spoke.
The first bylaw the SPC addressed was Bylaw 6455, an amendment to Bylaw 6146, the Waste Bylaw which a report by General Manager of Waste and Environment Mandi Parker states “regulates the storage, collection, processing, and disposal of waste within the City, and provides for rates and fees for certain services provided by the City.”
The report states that the garbage, waste program and waste reduction fee have been increased by two per cent for 2025 while the fee for the recycling and organics carts have been increased by one per cent.
The commercial collection fee has increased by four per cent.
An update to the tipping rates on recyclable shingles is because of the increased of processing, says Parker’s report.
Residents will also pay more for the electric distribution tariff in 2025. Bylaw 6466, an amendment to Bylaw 6364, the Electric Distribution Tariff, will also be addressed by council on Oct. 22.
This tariff sets the rates for all customers who receive electric services from the City of Lethbridge’s electric utility and covers the costs for the wire services required to connect those customers to electrical services. It doesn’t cover costs associated with the energy that is consumed.
The tariff has two main components to recover the costs of providing electric utility infrastructure for customers – transmission access fees and distribution access fees.
TAFs are collected by the City’s electric utility and flow through to the Alberta Electric System Operator to cover costs of the province’s transmission system.
These fees will increase by 1.5 per cent across all rate classes in the electric distribution tariff to meet forecasted costs from the AESO in 2025.
Distribution access fees are collected from customers to cover the costs related to the electrical distribution system infrastructure in the City. This system provides electrical connection to all Lethbridge customers from the transmission system to their point of use.
These fees will increase by two per cent across all rate classes to meet forecasted costs in 2025.
Bylaw 6457, an amendment to Bylaw 3250, the sewerage service charge bylaw, will increase wastewater utility revenues by three per cent in 2025 through changes to the wastewater rates contained within Bylaw 3250.
Rates will increase three per cent for all customers. These new rates come into effect Jan. 1.
And lastly, Bylaw 6456, an amendment to Bylaw 3999, the water services bylaw – 2025, calls for an increase of two per cent for all customers next year.
A report by General Manager of Wastewater Services Doug Kaupp says the City water utility is funded through utility rates which provide the revenue required to balance expenses detailed in the operating budget including costs associated with water treatment, pumping and storage, maintenance and life-cycle renewal of underground infrastructure and payments on debts that fund approved projects.
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