Audit finds 3 problems that led to 'extraordinarily large' Calgary water bills

The Calgary city auditor has found problems in the way some residential water meters operate, and in the city's billing processes.

The audit was commissioned a couple of years ago, before recent complaints about over-billing were raised by some customers.

• Nenshi says water bill changes, review coming after Calgarians report 'extraordinarily large' charges

A few Calgarians were shocked to see water bills in the thousands of dollars in August and at the time, Mayor Naheed Nenshi said some big bills would be forgiven if the customer worked with Enmax to identify the problem in a timely manner.

One of the problems the audit found was faulty transmitters in meters, meaningaccurate information wasn't passed on to Enmax, resulting in overbilling.

Three recommendations were made by the auditor to fix the issues found, andCoun. Evan Woolley, who chairs the audit committee, says the city has accepted all of them.

That, combined with council's direction to forgive unexplained high bills, should mean the city's water customers can rest easy.

'Unanimous in its support'

"Overcharged customers needed to be ... dealt with right? And they needed to have those charges go away. I think now what we need to look to, is how do we get the system working the way it's supposed to where customers are not overcharged and council has been unanimous in its support for that."

The audit recommended:

• Implementing a process to confirm requested changes to an account would be added in a timely manner.
• Exceptions be investigated and followed up on.
• Having a timeline on Enmax providing a report that assures billing accuracy and timeliness.

The water utility is expected toreport back to the audit committee on its progress in fixing the problems with the meters.

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