MOOSE JAW — City council has officially approved Moose Jaw’s new stormwater utility bylaw, but not before receiving an earful of criticism from a homeowner frustrated with the bylaw’s seeming redundancy.
During its July 28 regular meeting, council gave unanimous approval to the bylaw during its third reading. This means more than 11,000 properties in Moose Jaw will begin paying a monthly fee of $9.80 to fund the city’s stormwater operations and infrastructure needs.
The new utility will generate $1.6 million annually for the municipality. The money is also expected to reduce general operating budget expenses by $326,000 and cut 0.75 per cent from the municipal tax hike.
The bylaw prohibits homes and businesses from making unauthorized discharges, with some prohibited substances including wastewater, liquids hotter than 65 Celsius, pesticides, solids greater than 12.5 millimetres, petroleum and chlorinated pool water, the bylaw says.
The bylaw says properties are mandated to connect to the stormwater system, especially buildings with a roof area that is equal to or larger than 300 square metres or covers over 75 per cent of the site and parking lots that are over 1,200 square metres in size.
Property owners must connect within 60 days of receiving a notice or the municipality may connect the property at the owner’s expense, the document says.
With penalties, fines for breaching the bylaw range from $500 to $10,000, the bylaw adds. Also, the city may disconnect services for unpaid charges or bylaw violations with notice, while the city manager may enforce the collection of unpaid accounts.
Frustrated homeowner
Council held a public hearing about the proposed bylaw at the start of the meeting, with resident Art King speaking against it.
King — who also spoke in June — said he has a zero-landscape yard that features rocks instead of grass. He said he took this approach because his grass usually washed away and plugged up the nearby catch basin. Instead, his 30 tons of rocks now remain firmly in place.
The homeowner repeated his previous points, saying he thought the new bylaw was redundant and a “cash cow.” Moreover, he thought council could have just increased the mill rate by half a percentage point to generate the money for stormwater infrastructure upgrades.
Continuing, King said parts of the bylaw were “redundant” because SaskWater already tests water for quality, pollution and aggregates. Similarly, he pointed out that Wakamow Valley Authority and other water authorities in the Qu’Appelle chain did similar testing.
“But this bylaw says to duplicate all those works. So I’m a little saddened,” he remarked.
King — who lives on Ninth Avenue Northwest — expressed further frustration with the “terrible job” that city crews did to replace a catch basin on Ninth and Athabasca Street West. He noted that they replaced a 40-square-foot area of asphalt that lasted four days. Afterward, the patch job produced chunks almost a foot square, or “as big as my hat.”
King pointed out that the bylaw says aggregate materials should be no larger than 12.5 millimetres in size, equivalent to 1.2 centimetres or a half-inch in diameter. Yet, the chunks of asphalt filled the catch basin, which caused water to pool at that corner and a block south on Ominica Street West.
Meanwhile, “the saddest part,” King continued, was that he sent pictures of the plugged drain to Coun. Carla Delaurier, who allegedly told him that she would forward them to council and administration. He noted — with disbelief in his voice — that she allegedly told him that, after city hall called him about the situation, he should inform her of what the “repercussions” would be.
“Am I in favour of this bylaw? Absolutely not,” he added.
Council did not ask King any questions afterward, prompting him to remark that it was “a repeat of five weeks ago.”
The next regular council meeting is Monday, Aug. 11.
