Fifth times the charm: Council passes water & sewer budget

Nick Seebruch
Fifth times the charm: Council passes water & sewer budget
A faucet.

CORNWALL, Ontario – After five votes, Cornwall City Council passed the water and sewer budget for 2018 on Monday, Dec. 18.

Council settled on a 6.25 percent increase after rejecting a 7.65 percent increase and three other motions the week prior.

Administration suggested the increase to keep up with the aging watermains in the city.

There is 69km of watermains that need to be replaced at a cost upwards of $40 million.

Councillor Claude McIntosh said it reminded him of an old commercial of paying more now or paying more later.

“The backlog is the current number for catching up with what’s outstanding, but for every year we don’t take care of the backlog more infrastructure falls into need of repair and therefore ads to the backlog,” said General Manager for Infrastructure John St. Marseille. “We’re just barely keeping up.”

The motion for a 7.65 percent in the water and sewer budget failed as Councillors Maurice Dupelle, Mark MacDonald, Andre Rivette, Justin Towndale, David Murphy and Mayor Leslie O’Shaughnessy all voted against.

Councillor Elaine MacDonald, who was in favour of the 7.65 percent increase expressed her frustration saying that she had no problem with a difference of opinion, but would at least like an explanation.

“I see no votes with no explanation,” she said.

After the failed vote, Mayor O’Shaughnessy stepped down from the chair to advocate for an increase of 6.25 percent with $850, 000 coming from the capital projects budget to give council “breathing room” in 2018.

The Mayor argued that he believed that the City could apply for more grants in 2018 and vigorously pursue funding from senior levels of government.

“We just accept the fact that they say no,” he said.

The 6.25 percent wound up passing with unanimous support from Council, despite reservations from some councillors.

“When we look at 9 percent next year we will know why we are looking at 9 percent,” said Councillor Elaine MacDonald. “I’m willing to compromise and do something that’s not good enough to do something worse and going lower.”

MacDonald was referring to the belief that unless the increase this year was adequate, Council would be looking at a bigger increase in 2018 rather than a lower one.

Councillor Bernadette Clement said she respectfully rejected the Mayor’s proposal because in her view, it was not balanced.

“The balance I see is something spread over a number of years, your concept is that we will see a spike and to me that isn’t balance,” she explained.

In total, the increase of 6.25 percent equals out to a roughly $5 increase on water bills.

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