• Provincial review

The way Peel charges for water and wastewater is changing

The cost to deliver water and wastewater services to businesses and homes is rising.

The cost of energy, labour, and insurance is rising, and our infrastructure is aging. To provide our customers and communities with safe, quality, reliable service, Peel Region must keep investing in the maintenance of our treatment plants and thousands of kilometers of pipes.

The changes to your water bill are the result of a detailed, multi-year financial planning process.

Peel Region reviewed the costs of delivering water and wastewater services to three different customer types: single-unit residential, multi-unit residential and businesses. The goal was to ensure rates are fair and customers are billed based on the cost of providing services to them.

Whether you're at home or away, the system is always ready and in place for when you need it.

The new rate structure

The way Peel charges for water and wastewater service is changing.

Instead of a single consumption charge, customer bills will have two parts: a service delivery charge and a consumption charge. Using a service delivery charge to cover fixed costs means that overall, the rate is now lower for basic consumption.

The consumption charge reflects the amount of water that was used during a billing period. The service delivery charge supports the more than 80% in fixed costs needed to bring water into and take wastewater out of your home. Fixed costs are expenses that stay the same throughout a specific period.

Some of the fixed costs associated with providing water and wastewater services include:

• the infrastructure, such as pipes, pumping stations and Water Resource Recovery plants, and the employees needed to maintain all of it.
• Meter reading and billing costs.
• The chemicals needed to provide clean, safe water.

Single-unit residential customers will now have a rate with two levels for water consumption.

1. Basic use rate: less than 50 cubic meters of water used is charged a lower rate.
2. Higher use rate: above 50 cubic meters of water used is charged a higher rate.

You might use more than 50 cubic meters if you have:

• A swimming pool on your property.
• A sprinkler system.
• Multiple bathrooms in your home.

Multi-unit residential customers will continue to have one water rate. Since there are no individual water meters in multi-unit buildings, there was no way to measure when a unit had reached 50 cubic metres of water used. The rate for this customer group falls in the middle of the single-unit residential basic use and higher use rates.

Businesses (industrial, commercial, and institutional) will continue to have one water consumption rate.

Wastewater billing is not changing

• Wastewater billing was also reviewed as part of the financial planning process. For single-unit residential and multi-unit residential customers, wastewater will continue to be billed based on 85% of the amount of water used.
• For industrial, commercial, and institutional customers, wastewater will continue to be billed based on 100% of water used.

We are committed to modernizing our billing process and making your bills easier to read. We continue to research and improve our systems and customer experience while maintaining rates that are 30% lower than other GTA municipalities, making us one of the most affordable in the GTA.