Rocky View County (RVC) residents will be paying more for almost everything – even the cost of dying – in the coming year, after RVC council passed the municipality's Master Rates Bylaw during their March 28 meeting.
According to documents provided by RVC, the rate changes came into effect as of April 1.
Some of the more notable increases include a new $4,000 fee on Area Structure Plans for minor text or mapping amendments, and a new $7,500 fee for a Natural Resource Extraction/Processing master site development plan.
There will also be a 10 per cent fee increase on sewer and water rates for any communities serviced by the County’s utilities.
But the broadest range of increases reflected in the new Master Rates Bylaw for 2023 were in the areas of burials and cemetery fees.
Those wishing to head to their earthly rest as a casket burial in the Garden of Peace Cemetery on the east side of the county will pay about $100 more for their plots this year. Cremation burial plots at Garden of Peace Cemetery will increase by about the same amount.
Dalemead’s and Bottrel’s cemeteries will see no change in their plot rates.
However, the cost to have the County come out and prepare the ground for burial will increase $50 in the summer months (May 1 to Oct. 1) from $1,012 dollars to $1,062. And in the winter months (Oct. 2 to April 30), the rate will go from $1,288 to $1,352.
If someone wishes to be buried double-deep in winter for a first burial on their plot, the rate increases from the current $1,737 to the new rate of $1,824. In summer, double-depth burial will cost $1,534 as of April 1, which is up from $1,461 in 2022.
Division 2 Coun. Don Kochan asked RVC staff if they had considered creating one rate for both winter and summer burials to be fair to every citizen who passes away in the county, regardless of the season.
“Wouldn’t it be more beneficial to the customers if we just averaged the rate so they didn’t have to worry about kicking the bucket before winter sets in?” he asked.
The rationale on the County's higher winter service fee is the extra work required in the winter, replied Angela Pare, an employee of RVC Cemetery Services.
“Not only do we have to deal with snow removal to and from the site to create access for families to get to the site, but for our equipment as well,” she noted. “In the winter the ground is frozen; so we often have to thaw the ground before we can dig it. So again, extra fees, extra costs, and extra time [are] required on that.”
Kochan acknowledged Pare’s answer, and then asked if she had heard any complaints about the variable seasonal rate for burial in Rocky View County.
“So no complaints if they hit Oct. 2, and they have to be charged the extra amount when the ground is still not frozen and there is no snow?” he asked.
Pare acknowledged they did receive complaints on this issue every once in a while, but Kochan left it there.
Cost recovery
Before voting on the Master Rates Bylaw, Division 4 Coun. Samanntha Wright made a motion that the proposed fees for curbside garbage and recycling in the Harmony subdivision of Springbank be removed from consideration until after it could be discussed further at a future Governance Committee meeting. Her motion passed unanimously.
Council then unanimously approved the rest of the Master Rates Bylaw for 2023 as amended.
When that motion passed, Coun. Kochan proposed a motion arising out of the Master Rates Bylaw discussions surrounding the timeline to get to 100 per cent cost recovery of sewer and water systems from hamlet communities and other subdivisions through the existing water and sewer rates.
Kochan felt it was unfair some water users in RVC were paying full freight on their usage while others were being heavily subsidized. He mentioned as an example the hamlet of Bragg Creek, which is currently subsidized 68 per cent by other taxpayers in the county for their water and sewer use.
“I see there are still some rates that are being heavily subsidized,” he said. “I have a lot of water co-ops in my division which pay well over $10 a cubic metre, and all of a sudden they are expected to be subsidizing Bragg Creek water at 68 percent. So where is the fairness of all this?”
RVC Operations Director Byron Riemann responded it was normal for newly serviced communities and subdivisions to be subsidized when they first come into their own and over time, as population density increases, to equal things out so they are paying as close to 100 per cent of the utilization as possible.
In the case of Bragg Creek, Riemann said it would probably take close to $450,000 in higher fees, or an increase of about 20 per cent over current water and sewer rates, to get to 100 per cent cost recovery with the hamlet’s current population if council wanted it done today.
However, he said he had heard Kochan’s concerns and was expecting to return to council before the end of the year with some sort of county-wide plan to achieve greater cost recovery in its water and sewer utilities.
“If council wants to raise those rates so it is not a deficit anymore, or drawing on taxes across the board from a County budgeting perspective, then definitely we can put some mechanisms together that show you what those rates look like,” he explained.
Nonetheless, Kochan said he would like to see staff’s plan to address the inequality of the situation a lot sooner than the end of the year.
Division 1 Coun. Kevin Hanson felt Kochan was being a little hasty in his comments, as cost recovery for utilities was not even listed as one of council’s work priorities for 2024.
“I am just as concerned as the next councillor about this, but let’s do things in the proper order,” Hanson stated. “The very first person on the utility does not get a $300,000 bill. There is a business plan behind these things, and you have to be willing to pick a timeline and try to achieve break-even.”
However, Chief Administrative Officer Dorian Wandzura suggested a compromise to expedite the work of his staff on the issue, but still give them enough time to do the work thoroughly. He suggested the matter return to council at the Sept. 12 Governance Committee meeting to discuss best practices in rate setting, long-term capital obligations, and the pros and cons of unified rates across the county versus the status quo of individual system rates.
Kochan accepted this compromise from Wandzura and made a motion to this effect. The motion was supported unanimously by council.
