A new stormwater tax may soon trickle down to Oakville property owners.
The town is considering levying a fee against homeowners and businesses, to help it cover the cost of maintaining and upgrading aging stormwater infrastructure.
That fee is likely to be in the range of about $100 a year for residents but could cost local businesses thousands per month.
By billing property owners based on their amount of impervious area (such as parking lots and rooftops), the town could shift the burden of paying for new infrastructure away from homeowners and toward commercial and institutional properties.
That was one of the messages in a series of presentations delivered to councillors in a workshop held this week, on Tuesday, June 11.
A specific plan for funding stormwater infrastructure will be proposed to town councillors by the end of the year. For now, council has given the nod to a public information and consultation program to explain why the new tax is being proposed.
Stormwater is rain and melted snow that flows over the land and into drains, ditches, creeks and lakes.
Hard surfaces like roads, parking lots and rooftops prevent stormwater from soaking into the ground, causing it to flow quickly into storm drains, often carrying pollutants such as oil, grit and garbage into creeks and the lake.
Stormwater infrastructure helps the town manage that water runoff to protect properties from flooding and avoid water pollution.
A recent rainwater management strategy estimates it will cost $640 million to care for the town’s storm sewer pipes, culverts, creeks, shorelines, ponds, ditches and harbours over the next 30 years.
Aging infrastructure, ongoing growth, and the impact of climate change are all driving the need for improvements.
The town will need to spend an average of $21.3 million a year to maintain the system and build in climate resiliency, according to the strategy - that’s about $12.4 million more each year than is currently budgeted for stormwater infrastructure.
Read more here: Town short millions to pay for stormwater management infrastructure
The system is currently funded through property taxes, but a stormwater fee could provide a fairer way to distribute costs, councillors heard. That’s because residential properties currently pay for about 73 per cent of costs through property taxes but contribute less than half of the town’s runoff.
Consulting firm AECOM is working with town staff to finalize a proposed billing and implementation plan.
The simplest version of a plan could charge each property a flat stormwater fee, while more complex versions could vary based on a property’s contribution to runoff, said AECOM project manager Pippy Warburton.
She told councillors that many municipalities opt for flat fees for homeowners but create tiered fees for non-residential properties based on factors like size and impervious areas.
"The difference between a big house and a small house might be one or two dollars a month, so to split them out, the administration is just not worth it," she said.
"Whereas the difference between non-residential properties is so vast. One could be paying $1,000 and one could be paying $20,000 a month. For them, it’s much more prudent to measure individually."
Warburton added that a credit program could incentivize property owners to reduce their impact on the stormwater system, in exchange for reduced fees.
The town is set to roll out an information campaign emphasizing that the fee will provide a fair, transparent and easy-to-understand way to fund necessary infrastructure improvements.
But Ward 1 councillor Sean O’Meara isn’t expecting residents to be happy about receiving yet another bill, especially when there’s no guarantee that their property taxes will decline as a result.
"I have a feeling our residents aren’t going to be so enthusiastic about the discussions we’re talking about here," he said. "What I hear, every single day: ‘Everything is getting more expensive, and you continue to ask me to pay more, more, more.’"