OSWCA asks province to operate wastewater systems on full cost recovery model

MISSISSAUGA, ONT.  — The Ontario Sewer and Watermain Construction Association (OSWCA) recently made a pre-budget submission to Ontario Minister of Finance Peter Bethlenfalvy asking the provincial government to pass legislation that would require municipal and regional governments to operate their water and wastewater systems on a full cost recovery funding model.

“Employing measures to ensure the most efficient and strategic allocation of resources will be critical, not only to sustainable infrastructure investment, but too, as Ontario moves through the post-pandemic economic recovery process,” states the submission. “By requiring municipalities to operate their water and wastewater systems on a full-cost recovery basis, the province will: create consistent and sustainable jobs at the municipal level by ensuring stable and predictable annual investments in local infrastructure; ensure the sustainability of municipal operators to deliver clean drinking water and appropriately treat and dispose wastewater; and, perhaps entirely remove the need for provincial subsidization of municipal water and wastewater systems.”

The following is a summary of recommendations included in the submission: 

• Reinstitute the legislated definitions for “full-cost recovery” and “wastewater services” as defined in the Sustainable Water and Sewage System Act, 2002. Maintaining these definitions will ensure those municipalities which voluntarily adopted full-cost recovery when it was previously legislated will not be unduly penalized due to a language change.

• Require municipal water systems that serve at least 10,000 people to recover all costs through user fees.

• Temporarily make funding available to municipalities seeking to retrofit or rehabilitate water and wastewater infrastructure in order to accommodate a move towards system regionalization.

• Require municipalities applying for provincial funding for a water or wastewater infrastructure project to demonstrate that amalgamation of their systems with a nearby municipal system would not resolve their funding issues and create greater economies of scale.

• Maintain a long-term goal of eliminating provincial funding for municipal water and wastewater infrastructure projects for all municipalities with a population over 10,000.

• Establish a regionalization fund that incentivizes larger system operators to assist smaller system operators with material purchasing and problem issues in cases of emergencies.

• Allow small system operators the opportunity to remain independent, even when a regional option is available, on the condition the users of the system are willing to pay for its operation and upkeep moving forward.