City tackles operations, utilities and waste management portions of 2017 budget
Residents will likely see an increase on their utility bills next year.
The draft budget for North Battleford in 2017 includes a three per cent increase for residents’ water and sewer utility rates, which City Manager Jim Puffalt said is fairly consistent with what others will see across the province.
“A lot of the cost we don’t have control over,” he said. “Utility rate increases are going to come, we can’t control that. We’re controlling what we can and we’re trying to make a reasonable increase to taxpayers.”
Puffalt pointed to increased costs for the city to operate its facilities as the reason behind the increases. The city has a base rate and consumer rate for utilities, both of which are subject to the three per cent increase, so residents can partially control how much they’re paying on the consumer side by controlling their water use.