The Township of Langley introduced a voluntary metered utility program last year. Metered utilities are generally a good thing, especially as costs for services from Metro Vancouver for both water and sewer are expected to climb.
A metered utility can be a lot more fair: pay for what you use. If your neighbor has a pool, hot tub, and washes their car three times a week, shouldn’t they pay more for service? The goal of metered utilities is fairness and giving people incentive to be more water conscious.
The success of this program depends heavily on its design. Is there enough incentive to actually convince people to switch? This is where the program the Township created falls flat.
The Key Problem: Incentives
Right now, houses default to flat rate utility. You pay a flat rate for sewer and water no matter how much you use. Under this flat rate program, you are charged $1,549 per year, a little more if you have a secondary suite.
If you sign up for voluntary water metering, the base rate is $1,058 a year and then you need to pay for water and sewer use on top of that.
That ~$500 difference is buying you 245m³ of water and its associated sewer per year. It sounds like a lot, but the average Canadian uses 223L per day(1). The average family of two uses 163m³ per year. A family of four uses 326m³. If it’s more than you and your spouse, this program is almost guaranteed to cost you more money than it would save you.
The other problem is that flat rate utilities socializes the costs of leaks. I had a leak on my hot water tank; the final bill to repair was $385. I chose to get it fixed because it was the right thing to do, but purely from a financial perspective, it’s an extra risk of metered utility you don’t have to worry about with flat rate.
Why This Matters
The primary benefit to all of us from higher meter adoption is lowered water use. This is going to become particularly important as water and sewer rates from Metro Vancouver are expected to skyrocket.Utility fees are going to become increasingly uncomfortable for families, especially in an environment of unaffordability. We are also in a period of climate change that is challenging our existing water infrastructure.
Low adoption rates are also going to mean that it will continue to be very difficult for leaks in municipal pipes to be detected. Without metering, we cannot assess if water going in meets expected water coming out. Money is literally leaking into the ground.
Fixing Water Metering for Tomorrow
The water metering program is a good start but still highly flawed. Instead of continuing to do the wrong thing, we’re doing the wrong thing better.
A properly designed metering program would reflect what Langley City is doing:
– Dramatically lower the base rate. Langley City base rate is $150 for comparison.
– Charge primarily for consumption- Make switching financially beneficial for average families
– Achieve higher adoption rates
– Actually detect leaks and reduce waste
We need to fix the incentive structure and actually give people a reason to switch over. Reduce the fixed costs and make the system run mostly on water use.
Otherwise, we’ll keep paying for water that’s leaking into the ground while families avoid a program that would cost them more to join.
(1)https://vividcomm.com/2024/12/21/water-consumption-in-canada/?hl=en-CA