The Blue Mountains councillor June Porter has raised concerns about a town letter that has gone out threatening to disconnect the water services of local residents who do not get their water meters upgraded in the next few weeks.
Porter raised a concern about the letter at council’s committee of the whole meetings on Sept. 25 and 26.
“I’m concerned about the tone of the letter,” said Porter. “I think it’s alarming. The public deserves a kinder letter.”
The letter from the town states:
“Despite our numerous attempts to contact you, you have failed to book an appointment to upgrade your water meter … Under bylaw 2023-37 we will be disconnecting your water service on October 15, 2023 until the meter is upgraded. Once the service has been disconnected there will be an additional fee applied to the account to turn the water back on.”
The letter also warned that other fees could be applied to the water bill if the resident did not have their water meter upgraded during the time period the town has engaged a contractor for the project.
Neptune Technology Group has been hired by the town to complete the water meter upgrades across the community. The company’s contract with the town expires in October.
Porter said she was concerned about how the town’s message was being communicated in the letter and asked for an explanation from staff.
Shawn Carey, the town’s operations director, said the town’s communications efforts on the water meter replacement program began last year. He said local residents have received multiple town letters/mail outs, direct visits to their door and phone calls on the project. Carey said as of Sept. 25, 4,254 new water meters had been connected.
“The majority of residents have had their meters installed,” he said.
Carey said the latest letter was an attempt to get the final few residents to book appointments to have the new meters installed before Neptune’s contract ends next month.
CAO Shawn Everitt said the town does have the authority to disconnect homes that don’t get the new water meter installed, but he said that was a step the town wants to avoid.
He said a number of residents haven’t responded to the town’s attempts to set up an appointment for the upgrade or “quite frankly, have refused.”
“If you don’t have the work done, you may have your water turned off. There is no real nice way of saying that,” said Everitt. “We have identified that if they don’t comply, they can have their water shut off. That is the last thing we want to do.”
The CAO also stated that some members of town staff on the project have faced “aggressiveness” from some residents that he deemed “unacceptable.” He said the situation has had him contemplating whether to include a budget amount for staff body cameras in the 2024 budget.
Coun. Gail Ardiel said she too had heard from residents who had received the letter who were not impressed with its wording.
“This was a hard-nosed letter,” she said. “It was a little harsh.”
Mayor Andrea Matrosovs said she was pleased the issue came to the council table and was happy with the explanation from staff. The mayor praised the multiple points of contact the town has made on the water meter project and said after several letters, phone calls and direct contact it made sense for the town to point out the consequences of possible water disconnection if the water meter installation is not completed.
“It has illuminated the extensive communications staff has provided,” said Matrosovs. “Over 90 per cent compliance is a demonstration of the success (of the communications).”
Council discussed the issue extensively at the Sept. 26 committee of the whole session, but did not take further action on the matter.
