SUNDRE — The municipality’s fees, which are reviewed annually, will largely remain the same next year as they did in 2020.
The rate charged to truck septic waste into the town’s wastewater treatment plant will even be reduced.
Before approving the fees and rates bylaw, council heard during the regular Dec. 7 teleconference meeting a presentation from Chris Albert, director of corporate services.
“The purpose of the user fees associated with the various departments is intended as a partial or potentially a full cost recovery, plus any contributions to restricted surplus (accounts),” said Albert, adding that depends on individual departments.
“Some departments only require a partial cost recovery, other departments such as utilities, is a full cost recovery.”
Factors that are carefully considered when calculating and determining the fees and rates include the anticipated usage of a service, a department’s objectives, the previous year’s expenses, and of course the overall budget itself, he said.
“If there have been no changes to some of those criteria, then we don’t do changes to the fees themselves," he said.
In consulting with the managers of each department, Albert told council he was informed they for the most part did not require changes to their fee schedules.
For example, he said the community services department conducted a comprehensive review in establishing their 2020 fees, and added that “because of COVID, they have not seen the impact of those fees. So, that was their justification for not changing their fees going into 2021.”
However, due to some recent conversations and situations, the planning and development department “established two new fees that they feel are warranted under the circumstances for new services that they’re providing.”
Responding to follow-up questions by email, Albert said, "Overall fees remain unchanged. The two new planning and development fees are Environmental Phase 1 Search Letter for $50, and Development Permit Extension for $200."
Additionally, he told council another change was regarding the wastewater treatment facility's septic intake rate.
Third parties — or outside organizations such as companies, industrial and agricultural operators, as well as acreage owners — use the lagoon for their disposal, a service the municipality charges based on how many cubic metres are dumped per load, he said.
“The structure of this fee was changed going into 2020, because of the new septic receiving station, and that we would be able to meter based on a cubic meter — it used to be per truck (basis),” he said.
When the new per cubic metre fee was introduced last year, he said administration determined the rate following discussions with a variety of users to gauge how much use could reasonably be expected.
“Our main intent with that fee when we set it up was not to have a substantial increase in our revenues," he said.
But after almost one year with the new rate in place, administration discovered the fee “was actually generating substantially more revenue than just our basic cost recovery. So, we have opted to reduce that fee, now that we have a little bit more information on the total size of those trucks that are coming,” he said.
Providing additional background information by email, Albert told The Albertan, "Under the previous per-truck fee, larger users were being subsidized at the expense of smaller trucks and therefore the per cubic metre rate was viewed as more appropriate."
Albert also added that, "Up to November 2019, revenue generated from users of the dumping services was approximately $184,000. For that same time frame in 2020, it is about $228,000, which at $11 per cubic metre equates to almost 21,000 m3, and that volume at $8.50 (per cubic metre) translates to about $178,000 in revenue."
Concluding his presentation, Albert said administration sought council’s approval of the bylaw so the 2021 rates and fees can be in place by Jan. 1 with ample time to communicate the information to the public.
Following Albert’s report, council proceeded to unanimously carry all of the bylaw’s readings.
