South Frontenac revokes Sydenham water “non-usage fee”

Jeff Green | Jul 16, 2015

The controversial extra charge of $25 a month for residents of Sydenham who have not hooked up to the Sydenham water system has been revoked by Council. Residents who are not hooked up will continue to pay for the water that they don't use, as they have all along, but they will no longer pay an extra fee for not using the water they pay for.

Although Council revoked the fee at their meeting in Sydenham last week (July 7), they stopped short of rebating the money that has already been collected since the “non-usage fee” was instituted a year ago.

“I know Council is removing this charge and I know why, but the fact is that it is the only thing we have done that has resulted in people actually hooking up to Sydenham water, which is what we want,” said Mayor Ron Vandewal.

In a report to Council about the matter, Treasurer Louise Fragnito wrote that since the extra charge was introduced, 34 households hooked up to the system, a 22% increase. “At a minimum, 18 of those accounts can be correlated to the non-usage fee,” she wrote.

She also said that in the absence of the fee “consideration must be given to a mechanism to continue to encourage non-using accounts to begin to use the water system.”

The township has the authority to enter the lot of someone who refuses to hook up, and connect the building at the owner's expense, and use all methods to receive payment up to and including placing a lien on the property.

“We've never done that, and I don't see us doing it anytime soon,” said Vandewal.

On June 23, Council asked staff to prepare a revision to the Sydenham water bylaw to eliminate the extraordinary fees, citing their punitive nature.

Since June of 2014, the township has collected over $22,000 in “non-usage fees” $20 monthly per household before January of 2015, and $25 monthly from January to June.