Grande Prairie businessman points out fatal flaw in city's stormwater utility rate
"They're going to look to the County and say 'I don't have to pay that there'," said Jeff Keddie, Grande Prairie businessman.
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When Jeff Keddie started looking into the impact Grande Prairie’s stormwater utility would have on his operations, he was flummoxed.
“I’m half the size of the mall and paying three times the amount,” he told the council during their Feb. 12 regular meeting.
Keddie calculated his bill based on the city’s utility billing system. Currently, he pays $5,000 an amount based on his property assessment. With the new user-pay system, that jumps to $30,000 annually.
The stormwater system was historically funded by city taxes: residential and non-residential. How much one paid was based on their municipal assessment. Since 2019, the council has been working on a different model.
Once implemented, the fees that were applied based on their property assessments will be removed from respective annual tax bills.
As Keddie investigated his lots, he wondered what the impact would be throughout the city. He discovered that one large grocery store with comparable land size but more impervious surface would pay far less in fees and get the tax break because of the higher property assessment.
In the user-pay model, costs depended on a customer’s usage of the system which would be determined by how much of the land was friendly to water drainage, or in this case, unfriendly. Impervious surfaces, often artificial, are water-resistant surfaces that prevent drainage. The larger the impervious surface, the less drainage.
Concrete, pavement and even compacted soil interrupt the natural watershed, often having substantially negative impacts on municipal infrastructure. The larger the area, the bigger the impact.
Keddie provided council with examples of properties he looked at.
Another lot, with a larger property assessment and with more than enough land that met the non-residential cap threshold of 100 billing units, or 15,000 m2, would also get enormous savings. Compared to a neighbour’s lot, which has roughly 5000 m2 with no buildings and has a gravel surface that will pay $4,050, the mall is 17.5 times the size of the other lot but will pay $11,000 a year and see an $87,000 reduction in land taxes, he added.
It’s unfair to a minimum of 60 businesses that he can think of and he worries about the impact on Richmond Industrial Park and small businesses throughout the city.
“The increase is coming off the backs of small businesses that own lots in the city.”
Informal conversations he and his father have had with councillors confirmed for him that this was unfair. The unnamed councillors told them that it would be an unfair tax to them at times.
People are only just starting to find out what this utility rate is, said Keddie. When they get their first bills, they’re going to be shocked.
While everyone should be paying, there’s only one way that’s equal to everyone.
“It will be unfair to 60 or more businesses, but we have to be fairer to the larger ones? It’s a utility on water drainage. Fairer is based on your land size. It’s hard to cap that.”
If this isn’t fixed, added Keddie, those small businesses are going to look next door where they won’t have to pay the equivalent.
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