Watery Financial Affairs

The budget got the better of me yesterday. I didn't finish it. I will try again today. I learned stuff from re-reading about how water revenue is generated. 

We know the Region is responsible for supply of water to  municipalities. Five years ago,a stand pipe was constructed on  Ontario Hospital Property on Bloomington Road  Water  supplied  came from Lake Ontario via Halton /Peel Region. We were informed  it was to augment our aquifer supply during hot dry spells

It  was to be a very small percentage of our supply. Aurora had to approve the new supply.

Documentation in the  2012 budget  indicates seventy-five per cent of  water supplied  by York Region  comes from Peel/Halton; only twenty-five per cent  from the Aurora aquifer.

It appears  wholesale water supply charges are discussed in  a meeting  of the  financial officers of  York Region. That would be ten.

It's interesting. for several reasons. It means prices are calculated  at several points. Peel/Halton are involved . They would calculate wholesale water charges. Then the Region of York would calculate their wholesale water charges.on top of Peel/ Halton's.

Then local  municipalities would calculate their water charges on top of Peel/Halton and York Region.
Presumably, since  they met together, they would agree what those charges would be.I think, in the private sector, there may be a law against that process. It's called price-fixing.

Presumably the meetings would be open and transparent. Yet I have never heard a whisper about them.

Development in Aurora and Newmarket  hinge upon availability of hard services;water and sewers.

Yet sewage is carried away elsewhere to be treated and now we learn 75% of  water comes from
elsewhere

Since  2010, regional water rates  have increased  every year  and  are intended to be increased by ten per cent a year until 2015. That's a compound  process. Likely gets close to 100% increase in five years

Water is a natural resource. It is not manufactured. .

Presumably  the cost is to cover  buying water from outside the Region and  pumping 25% from the aquifer.

During the last term,I sought assurance from a regional official in a public meeting in Aurora that the  ground water supply continued to be plentiful. Assurance was forthcoming.

Protection of the well  recharge area, was offered as a reason for a cockamamie salt removal,snow melt treatment system costing hundreds of thousands of  dollars and  still in the capital budget

The Region carried out a huge study. no doubt at great expense to determine threats to the ground water supply. Road salt was not a threat.

If we are only drawing twenty-five per cent of our supply from the ground, who bother. Why don't we just import all of it from Lake Ontario. Then we can  stop worrying and spending money  dreaming  up schemes to protect the aquifer.  It would certainly represent ultimate protection for the Oak Ridges Moraine. 

Developers are paying high development charges to the Region for  infrastructure for the  supply of water.

At town level, infrastructure for  distribution  is constructed and paid for by developers.

Where then does extra cost for infrastructure to supply water come from?

Apparently to create reserves.

Those pesky reserves again. They just keep popping up everywhere. 

The Region is said to be wrestling with the problem of water loss. They do not distribute water. Where would potential for water loss be?

We have 178 kms of water lines in Aurora. I don't have the budget book in front of me at the moment so the figure is from re-call. There's a difference between water and sewer lines. One is more than the other. It's water I think. Archerhill subdivision, twelve or fourteen  estate lots with  water but no sewers.

Nine water breaks a year occur in  the system.

Yet capital expenditures of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year  have and continue to be  invested for maintenance of  infrastructure.

In 2010, annual water loss was calculated to have increased  from 8% to 12%. The new  figure was used, in part,to justify a 12% increase in  2010 water rates.

How can water loss increase ,while infrastructure maintenance sees millions invested.

Does a total of nine water breaks a year justify investing ongoing millions in  maintenance?

I am told  fresh new pipes are cut into to introduce plastic lining. People have seen it.

We have not yet had the discussion on the water budget. The questions have not been asked. The answers will be interesting if I am permitted to ask them.

$116,000 has been transferred from the water rate budget to parks. A figure of; $293,000 has also been transferred that the administration can no longer support in the water budget. The administration has not revealed what it is they can no longer support.

Input from people who know about this stuff is welcome.

P.S. A plan is  being floated to provide services from Lake Simcoe for  urban development of millions of acres of northern York Region  It would take a ton of public investment to get that sucker off  the ground.and into the Lake. The Region is already $2 billion in debt.

P.P.S. Where, I wonder, are they planning to find the finances ? Shouldn't  we know about that? Can we trust the blighters?