Fort Providence (Jan 12/07) - Everyone who uses municipal services in Fort Providence will see changes to what they pay for services, from using the dump to water and sewer, within the next few months.

The hamlet is examining its municipal service rates and preparing a new bylaw. The changes, however, won't necessarily take more money out of people's pockets.

"They're not necessarily going to go up," said Albert Lafferty, the senior administrative officer for the hamlet.

Although a consultation process has been started, the exact changes haven't been decided on, said Lafferty.

"There's still more work to do in terms of reviewing the rates."

Services that are being examined include water and sewer, garbage disposal, bulk water supply and landfill disposal access. Changes to the rates will affect residential and commercial customers as well as government agencies and departments who use the municipal infrastructure.

The rates are being re-evaluated because they were due for a review and because costs are going up, said Lafferty.

"It's time we have to respond accordingly," he said.

Currently, the hamlet is getting enough revenue to cover the costs of offering the services.

"We're doing alright, right now," he said.

Among the changes will be a charge for using the landfill. Fort Providence is one of the few hamlets in the Northwest Territories that has been providing full landfill access at no charge, said Lafferty. As part of the proposed changes, the landfill will only be accessible during business hours.

It costs the hamlet approximately $45,000 to $60,000 annually to provide environmental services including maintaining and operating the landfill site and sewage lagoon infrastructure, he said.

The hamlet is also taking future events into consideration by creating long term plans to set aside funds for a water truck replacement and the eventual reclamation of the landfill site when it's abandoned.

Following the territorial government

In addition to rising costs, many of the changes are in response to actions at the territorial government level, said Lafferty. New rates for the government's water and sewer funding program will be taken into account, he said.

The Department of Municipal and Community Affairs (MACA) is introducing a standard cost model for communities. The department will fund the amount that it should be costing communities with certain facilities to deliver their water and sewage services, according to Laura Gareau, the director of corporate affairs with the department.

The existing policy hasn't been updated in 10 years and was very outdated, she said.

With the changes most communities will experience an increase in funding, said Gareau. There are no final figures yet, but a draft budget has been provided to the communities. At this point Fort Providence is expected to see a funding increase of $100,000, Gareau said.

While MACA will have the new water and sewage services policy in place by April 1, Lafferty expects the hamlet's new bylaw to be finished in

February.