Year after year for the past 8 years we have experienced 9% increases in our water and wastewater rates. It has been unbearable for residents of King City to have to deal with this staggering cost of living increases. There was a time when your property tax bill covered the cost of water infrastructure and now with this full cost recovery our taxes are still high and our water bill is ridiculous.
I will not support water rates increasing this year because I am sick and tired of York Region and the Ontario Government pawning costs off to the residents through downloading of costs. York Region purchases water from Region of Peel and City of Toronto, the Township of King has no control over the cost but I believe we must send a message to York Region that we, as a Municipality are not going to continue to pay for uncontrollable costs to water with ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY to the people.
Regional Politicians preach about the cost of living and affordable housing but yet fail to deliver affordable services such as water, we as a Council must echo the concerns of residents and I will not stand for this unaccountable behavior as your Councillor.
Below are two tables pulled from the upcoming report this Monday, December 2, 2019: The full report can be found here.
https://king.civicweb.net/FileStorage/52CC8022EE0943689561FF2EF9FF8EF7-COW%20_1%20-%20JR-2019-03.pdf
Above Table Shows Increase To Water and Wastewater Rates Per Tier of Consumption
Above Table Shows What The Average Household Increase in Dollars for 270 Cubic Meters of Consumption
If you agree that this is ridiculous and would like to help me send a message to the Region of York that water rates matter in terms of cost of living this is what you can do.
Send an email expressing your frustrations to the following members of Council and to staff:
spellegrini@king.ca - Mayor Steve Pellegrini
dboyd@king.ca - Councillor David Boyd (Ward 2)
jschneider@king.ca - Councillor Jakob Schneider (Ward 3)
bcober@king.ca - Councillor Bill Cober (Ward 4)
dschaefer@king.ca - Councillor Debbie Schaefer (Ward 5)
aeek@king.ca - Councillor Avia Eek (Ward 6)
dkostopoulos@king.ca - Cheif Administrative Officer Daniel Kostopoulos
clerks@king.ca - So it can be part of the official record.
Also my own email: jcescolini@king.ca - your Ward 1 Councillor!
To all the residents who have called or emailed me in the past few weeks regarding this issue, this is your chance to help me, help you! Send an email to all the people above demanding that the Council not pass this increase but instead send a request to York Region to lower the cost of water by working with the Ontario Government to go back to the old system before full cost recovery.
Full cost recovery is an excuse to raise water rates and use property taxes for frivolous purposes instead of what they were meant for OUR INFRASTRUCTURE!
If you would like to go the extra step and come to Council the meeting is December 2, 2019, at 6:00 PM. To speak in front of the Council you must register at the front. Thank you to all the residents who have called and emailed I will continue to voice your concerns every chance I get.