Sunday, January 27, 2008

Toilets and gummint

The high cost of using less water
Municipalities discover inconvenient truth: Lower consumption means less revenue



Some years ago, during a particularly long drought that caused bans on watering the lawn, car washing, etc., we pitched  a brick.  Literally.  Acting on pleas from our elected gummint, we placed a brick in each of our four toilet tanks to reduce the volume of flush water.  We let the lawn die.  We let the flowers wilt.  Cars were dirty. No cheating. We were good citizens.  Eventually the summer rains came, heavy rains, as though it was a make-up call by Mother Nature, and the problem was quickly alleviated, and nary a peep from Algore..  Guess what?  Early next year we were socked with a water bill surcharge to cover the lost revenue our compliance caused.  We were annoyed.  We learned a lesson, too.  Canucks are just finding out, which is odd, what with them living under communist rule, and all.

 Bud Harris, 78, and grandson David Moreira, 27, obeyed the message to conserve but it will soon mean higher water rates at their Mississauga home.

For years the message drummed into Bud Harris, 78, and his grandson David Moreira, 27, was conserve, conserve.

And conserve they did, along with thousands of others across the GTA, watering their lawn less, replacing old toilets and installing water-efficient showerheads.

"We are trying to be economical and trying to do it to preserve the Earth as well," said Moreira, a locksmith who lives with his retired grandfather in a 1950s-era subdivision in Mississauga.

They've done all the right things, he says, 70 per cent for economic reasons and 30 per cent for environmental reasons.

But that win-win sentiment belies an inconvenient truth – one that came out in a recent unguarded comment from Durham Region's works czar, Cliff Curtis. Asked about declining water consumption, he told the Star:

"Conservation is killing us." (Taxes will have to be raised to cover repairs to the infrastructure.)

Bud unearthed his M-80 grenade launcher from it's hiding place.  He went to the headquarters of the Royal Mounted Water Police, and blew them all up. 

I made the last sentence up.  I think.  [Article]

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

I was taught that same lesson some years ago,during the Arab oil embargo, by a municipal electric facility, when I found that the less power one used the higher rate was charged per KW.....I sat around in the dark conserving energy and ended up paying the same monthly bill.....Screw conservation.

The Mayor said...

Torontonian's got a rebate (in 2006) if they conserved 25% from the year before. Then, the next year (07), every Torontonian got HAMMERED with huge rate increases.

Good for the Toronto Star to notice what happened. Even though they are 8 months late.

pdwalker said...

Taxes never really go down.

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