There is a reason some residents got an extra large water bill recently. (photo supplied)

By Susan McNeil

Water bills

City hopes to get remaining meters upgraded with inflated water bills

Oct 18, 2022 | 2:00 PM

Residents who recently got a really high water bill from the City of Prince Albert likely have not responded to notices to upgrade their meters.

The city has been working for seven months to complete software upgrades and had over 1,200 people not complete the upgrade despite multiple notices, said Director of Finance Ramona Fauchoux.

“We sent out three different notices to the residents. Metercor tried calling if we had a number on file,” Fauchoux said. “As well,Metercor went door to door to the remaining residents to see if they could get in to do this endpoint software update.”

Along with several mailed notices from the city, Metercor placed notices on doors with a fourth letter asking residents to make an appointment to upgrade the software in the meters.

The upgrades are about 90 per cent done but Metercor wants to have the project completed by the end of October.

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“If the resident wasn’t home, they left a door tag with a fourth letter and that fourth letter did say that if the resident wasn’t going to consider making their appointment, we would consider disconnecting their water. We discussed it and we decided to send out the inflated water bills to get the residents to come in and book their appointment,” Fauchoux said.

The decision had some effect with 447 of the 1,234 residents remaining call in and book their appointments.

“We are trying our best to get these people to come in and we felt that sending out the inflated bills was a better option than disconnecting the water,” she said.

Some councillors said that not all calls to book appointments were responded to by Metercor to complete the booking appointment.

Dennis Ogrodnick said he also received an $800 bill and paid it. He] said the issue was being available when Metercor wants to book the appointment.

“You get an answering machine, and they say they will call you at their convenience. Well, I’m calling at my convenience, when I have time. There has to be a way they can answer the phone,” he said.

He also said he never got a tag on his door asking for a call.

The city is not planning on keeping the money from the inflated bills and no interest will be charged.

“Once they call in we do send them an adjusted bill right away so they’re not expected to pay the $800 bill. It’s just a way to get them to call in,” Fauchoux said.

Appointments can be booked online or by calling 888-290-3070 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. (Monday to Friday).

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susan.mcneil@pattisonmedia.com