Moose Jaw city council was able to limit the waterworks and sanitary sewer utility rate increases, but it came at a cost.

The rate increases were at three per cent each with $200,000 in saving by discontinuing the no-corrode pipes subsidy, $100,000 in reduced overtime for repair and construction crews, over $118,000 in additional revenue from new septage receiving rates and $84,000 from the Saskatchewan Economic Recovery Rebate.

But that wasn’t good enough for city council as they decided to transfer $207,000 from the landfill reserve to bring the rate increases to two per cent each.

Councillors Crystal Froese and Dawn Luhning were pushing for no increases to the utility rates to help residents during the pandemic.

“In this budget, are we even recognizing that we are in a pandemic and that we have a lot of unknowns out there,” Froese said.

“And to me, utilities affect everyone and if we can find a way to hold the utilities to zero from this year, at the very least we're not adding additional burden to our citizens. There's not much is going to sway me.”

Froese went on to explain why she was adamant that it should be the utility rates that should be reduced to zero.

“This affects businesses across our city. It affects people who are renting apartments. It affects everyone.”

Mayor Fraser Tolmie’s concern was that years ago water utilities were combined with property taxes and the residents of Moose Jaw ended up subsidizing for rural water users. He was afraid history would repeat itself if the water rates stayed the same.

Tolmie explained why the landfill reserve would be the best option.

“This landfill is a regional landfill that not only the citizens of Moose Jaw use, but also the R.M. and outlying regions. And so, in my opinion, I can reason through that. The citizens of Moose Jaw are not subsidizing all the water rates and that this is actually a group effort.”

Director of Financial Services Brian Acker explained that the landfill lost $250,000 in revenue last year because it wasn’t used by the Buffalo Pound Water Treatment Plant as much due to a change in the treatment plants operations.

Rates at the landfill were increased for 2021 to help offset those costs, but Acker pointed out that the landfill still made money and contributes about $1.5 million each year to the reserve. The $207,000 being put towards the utilities costs will be covered by the landfill rate increases in 2021.

The motion to transfer the funds passed 6-1 with Luhning opposed. Froese voted in favour, but unsuccessfully tried to find other venues to bring the rates down to zero. Luhning was opposed, saying the measures didn’t go far enough.