The City of Windsor held a public information open house at the WFCU Centre Wednesday evening for residents to learn more about the stormwater fee implementation and new sewer surcharge structure.
The new structure will launch in Jan. 2025 after council first approved a plan in 2021 to implement a dedicated stormwater financing model towards a system based on impervious area on a given property.
"We're simply changing the way we bill," said city deputy treasurer and financial planner Tony Ardovini.
"The current sewer surcharge, they'll see two lines on their bill instead of one. One will be for wastewater based on water consumption like they've always had, and there will be one that's an additional one, on stormwater based on impervious area."
He says the average resident should see a decrease in their bill.
"Because up until now some of the larger impervious area non-residential's have not been paying very much towards their wastewater because it was based on water consumption. Now that burden is shifting to the actual properties that are contributing to the stormwater run off, which alleviates some of the burden from the residential customers."
Ardovini says billing for non-residential will depend on water usage.
"Some big properties that we've looked at and already met with as part of the enhanced engagement will actually see a reduction because they use a lot of water. It's because the water rate is going down, it offsets the increase in their impervious area that we're now measuring."
He says a residential incentive program will go to council for approval this fall and will include subsidizing green barrels, additional tree planting and enhancing the current basement flooding subsidies.
More information on the stormwater fee can found on the city website: letstalk.citywindsor.ca/stormwater-financing.
-With files from AM800's Rusty Thomson
