Annual Fees
The CLCA Board has asked us to explain the fee increase. I hope the
following answers questions you may have. If not please feel free to
contact our office.
How are fees determined – Lease holders individual billings for water,
wastewater and general municipal (community debt) are determined based on a
cost sharing formula developed by Stantec Consulting. This formula, for
residential application, includes factors for length of occupancy and type
of service. With the change of occupancy from 24 weeks to 7 months your
occupancy period amended from .42 of a year to .58. With direct service
connections now available your type of service changed from .7 to 1.0.
These amended factors are used in the calculation of cost sharing for the
utilities and debt. Water costs rose $50, Wastewater $20 and debt service
$60 (amounts rounded). Garbage did not change as it is a fee and not a
formula.
Why are fees assessed when not everyone has connected – The formula is not
based on consumption or actual occupancy but on availability. As some cabin
and cottage owners do not come every year, come for short periods or stay
for 5 – 6 months it is not practical to assess fees based on period of
time. The majority of our costs are fixed (electricity, labour,
maintenance, debt, etc.) and less than 2% are variable (chemicals).
Installing, reading and maintaining meters to determine share of the 2% of
variable costs would cost more than the 2% effectively raising everyone’s
proportional share of expenses.
Could fee increase be delayed until project is completed – In our public
meetings and the information packages we distributed we advised the
community of these fee increases. To be fair to other users of the system
we needed to assess the increase in the year service was available.
Future cost forecast – The water, wastewater and debt are full cost
recovery assessments. Community debt limit reached maximum allowance based
on current formula in 2010 and won’t be retired until 2030. The good news
is we cannot borrow more. The bad news is this limits community projects.
Water and wastewater expenses are assessed based on previous years
expenses. These costs can vary depending on system maintenance and cost
increases but historically they have been stable. The RM of Park is a user
of our water and wastewater system and assessed an annual fee as well. When
they completes their water system their share of fees will increase thereby
reducing costs to our community. Garbage is currently charged as a fee but
may become cost recovery in future years. Currently the Park subsidises
about 60% of the cost of garbage. If we were full cost recovery today the
cabin assessment for garbage would be approximately $80, an increase from
the current $27.50 fee. In many presentations the past couple years I
proposed the future total fee at $500 per year based on full cost recovery
for all services, including garbage. reductions from this future projected
amount will be based on share of services to the local municipality.
Dale Wallis
Townsite and Asset Manager | Gerant du lotissement urbain et des biens
Parks Canada | Parcs Canada
Riding Mountain National Park of Canada | Parc national du Canada du
Mont-Riding
Wasagaming, MB R0J 1N0
Telephone | Téléphone 204-848-7219
Cellular | Cellulaire 204-761-8904
Facsimile | Télécopieur 204-848-2596
Email | Courriel [email protected]
www.parkscanada.gc.ca/riding | www.parcscanada.gc.ca/riding
Government of Canada | Gouvernement du Canada
