City of Charlottetown easing pressure on water meter installation

The City of Charlottetown is easing the pressure on mandatory water meter installation in every home. Earlier this month, officials announced a proposed $50 surcharge, applicable every quarter, for every homeowner who hadn't yet arranged to have a water meter installed by January 2017. Recently, council voted on that proposal, and it passed, but with an amendment: The new surcharge won't come into effect until June 2017.

Eddie Rice, Chair of Charlottetown's Water and Sewer department, said thecity was trying to do too much, too soon.

"It was a month and a half notice, and it was a complicated" said Rice. "If you got it done, you got the penalty back, but what if everyone decided to get it done in those three months and we couldn't do them, then we'd be stuck with their money and we'd have to give it back...it was just too complicated and the fault was ours."

Additional shift added to speedinstallation

Rice said the process has been a learning experience for the municipality.

"We should have offered it on weekends and nights (from the start)," he said. "People work all the time and everybody wasn't available."

He said that a new shift has been added to the process, so anyone who isn't home during the day will be able to arrange for their installation in the evening, or on the weekend.

According to Rice, approximately 70 per centof Charlottetown homeowners had a free water meter installed since the process began just over a year ago.

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