Following the operating budget tax rate increase of 0.9% in December, water utility rates and wastewater utility rates are set to increase 0.9% following suite for the City of Lacombe.  When council reviewed and adjusted tax rates, they operated on the basis that the scenarios developed for tax rate would also apply for the utility rate. On January 13th, Lacombe City Council gave first reading to the updated increases. 

City of Lacombe Mayor Grant Creasey doesn’t foresee any changes or problems ahead following the increase after council worked hard to keep the tax increase below the inflation rate. 

“There’s no surprises there and I don’t think there should be for the public. We tried to keep our increases to an acceptable level and I think that we’ve done that,” said Creasey. 

The Mayor was not fond of the idea of cutting costs further as many services, and organizations in Lacombe have already had to make adjustments to accommodate the lower increase.  

“We’re getting down to splitting hairs when we’re talking about a fraction of 1% really now,” said Creasey continuing, “Is it an increase? Sure. I believe it is an acceptable one and it is reasonable. On some of the usage items that are going up two cents, you would have to be a massive user for that to have a significant impact.”

The increase of the combined utility bill is expected to affect the average household by $1.14/month or $11.50/year. 

Not all utilities will be changing as the solid waste and garbage utility rates were agreed to be frozen and will remain at the same rate as before. 

Chief Administrative Officer, Matthew Goudy said he was hoping to see a reduction in rates with the end of curbside recycling pick up, but was sadly disappointed by changes outside of the city’s control. 

 “With some of the changes we’ve seen in the industry, the actual cost per pick up for our recycling has gone way up and then with the increased use out at the Wolf Creek Recycle Depot we’re actually picking it up just about twice as often because we are picking up more bins, more often, at a higher fee per pick up,” explained Goudy.  

Despite the increase in the cost of recycling, Goudy believes that Lacombe’s increase is manageable in comparison to other municipalities who have seen greater increases.

“When we’ve looked around at some of our colleagues, I think the average increase is more around that 2% rate so being under 1% is something I know council put a high priority on and they are quite proud to have done that.”