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There must be a reason

July 5, 2019   ·   0 Comments

SHORT EDITORIAL

LESS THAN 20 YEARS AGO, in 2003, the Orangeville Council of the day decided to start installing water meters at all the town’s residences.

At the time, the move was seen as a means of making the charges fairer as well as an incentive to use less water for such things as lawn-watering and car-washing.

Although there were objections from some residents who predicted an increase in charges, no one suggested the possibility that anyone would face inexplicable charges.

Yet that’s clearly what has happened to Sushil Shundil, a resident of Elderberry Street in the Montgomery Village subdivision, which has some of the town’s smallest residential lots and relatively tiny lawns. He told Orangeville Council that his monthly water bill suddenly skyrocketed this spring to more than $1,000 – at least 10 times what the average resident faces.

He has reasonably been refusing to pay two of the bills that total nearly $3,000.

In the circumstances, we think the Town should forgo the normal $300 fee for checking out the actual consumption pattern and the water meter. 

Although leakage might account for some of the increase, it strikes us that enough leakage to produce such charges would by now have flooded Elderberry Street.

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