Tuesday, December 6, 2022

Proposed Langley City water, sewer, garbage, and dog licensing fee changes for 2023

It’s the start of budget season in Langley City. The part of the budget that Langley City Council addresses first is our water, sewer, and solid waste collection services. This is because the City bills high-volume water and sewer users multiple times per year.

Langley City needs to continue to invest in our water infrastructure. Many watermains are nearing the end of their useful lives. If the City doesn’t replace these watermain, they may fail, creating sinkholes and leaks. The City is proposing to increase the water rate by nine cents per cubic metre to $1.62 per cubic meter. This change is an average $29.70 increase for detached homeowners or $17.10 for strata homeowners per year.

Langley City purchases its water from the Metro Vancouver Regional District and sends its sewer to the Regional District for processing. The Regional District plans on doubling sewerage rates over the next several years to pay for upgrading sewer treatment plants. The City is proposing to increase the sewer rate by 15 cents per cubic metre to $1.56 per cubic metre. This change is an average $39.60 increase for detached homeowners or $22.80 for strata homeowners per year.

Detached homeowners receive garbage collection service from the City, while strata and commercial owners must use a private garbage collection service. The City is proposing to increase its service fee by $13 to $243 per year. This increase is due to Metro Vancouver Regional District fee increases, green waste processing fees increase, and our service provider’s fee increases, all due to inflation.

The City is also proposing to increase dog license fees by around 4~5%. These increases are due to annual inflationary increases built into our contract with the Langley Animal Protection Society, which enforces our animal control bylaw.

Finally, the City is proposing to increase various engineering and filming service fees to move them toward cost recovery. You can read more about these changes on Langley City’s website.

On Monday, Council gave first, second, and third readings to four bylaws about these fees.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

If it’s understood that: Detached homeowners receive garbage collection service from the City, while strata and commercial owners must use a private garbage collection service. The City is proposing to increase its service fee by $13 to $243 per year. This increase is due to Metro Vancouver Regional District fee increases, green waste processing fees increase, and our service provider’s fee increases, all due to inflation.

Question: Will Stratas property owners taxes also be included to increase? recognizing, as you acknowledge, we pay for private services? And those private contractors will also be raising their fees.
( sorry if that sounds like a silly question but I don’t understand the breakdown of property taxes completely with how detached homes and Strata’s pay 🤷🏻‍♂️… I’m not asking for a tutorial lol )

Nathan Pachal said...

Strata property owners do not have the garbage collection fee on their property taxes, so there is no impact from the City's garbage collection fee increase. Strata owners may see a price change for garbage collection as part of their strata fees, but the City has no role in that.