The City of Richmond will draw $1.3 million from its rainy day fund to keep water and sewer bills down in 2021.
Utility bills, which also include garbage and recycling as well as draining and diking, will increase in total by about $28 for single-family homes.
It’s estimated a single-family home’s utility bill will come to about $1,415 in 2021.
Water and sewer rates will increase by about 1.7 per cent, resulting in estimated increases of about $3.30 for apartments and $7 for single-family homes.
The increase would be twice as much, but the city will use $700,000 from its $15.7 million water utility reserve fund.
Metro Vancouver, which provides water services to Richmond, has set its increase in 2021 to 3.5 per cent, but the city expects water consumption to decrease and only estimated its payment to go up marginally.
To keep rate increases at zero, the city would have to withdraw $1.4 million from its reserves.
To keep the sewer rate increase at 1.7 per cent, the city is using a $600,000 cash influx from the sewer reserve fund.
There will be no increase to draining and diking rates – the rates will remain at $145 for homes in multi-family complexes and $154 for single-family homes.
Garbage and recycling rates for single-family and townhomes as well as businesses will go up 3.8 per cent while rates for apartment buildings will rise by six per cent.
According to the city, rates are based on different services. Garbage/recycling services are different for apartment buildings, so the increase is based on a lower variable.
How much a household is charged for garbage is dependent on the size of bin they have. Almost 80 per cent of single-family homes have a 240-litre bin, which will cost about $387 in 2021.
Seventy-five per cent of townhouses have 120-litre bins, and its rate in 2021 will be about $267.
Richmond city council dealt with these rates at Monday's committee meeting. They still need to be finalized in a council meeting.
