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COUNCIL ROUNDUP: City could write off more than $464K of unpaid utility bills

May 7, 2014 | 6:26 AM

The City of Prince Albert may soon write off more than $464,000 of unpaid water utility bills and introduce and pass a bylaw that would enable it to put outstanding utilities on tax bills.

The water bills set to be written off pre-date 2007, and the city’s administration made several attempts over the years to collect the unpaid funds. The outstanding bills were sent to collections, but the accounting ‘rule of thumb’ is to write off any debt that hasn’t been collected for more than seven years. The city is owed nearly $449,000 for utility bills that remain unpaid from 2007 to 2012.

Mayor Greg Dionne said that the city is dealing with the situation better now with better meter reading and deposits, and he thinks will be the last utility big bill write off.

The write-off won’t have an impact on the city’s finances.

And he’s still looking to bring in monthly billing as a potential remedy to the overall problem.

“It’s still on the books. Because … if we can get the readers to read it monthly, then that loss would go down by quite a bit. So, that’s why I suggested, if we already would have done it two, three years ago, we would have already recovered our money,” he said.

And now, the city is looking at another means of ensuring it collects future outstanding water utility bills, sooner.

With the province’s Cities Act giving municipalities the power to add unpaid utility bills to the tax rolls of the property’s owner, Prince Albert is looking to change its bylaws accordingly. Prior to the change at the provincial level, cities could not charge landlords for utilities not paid for by their tenants.

That’s something that doesn’t sit well with Coun. Mark Tweidt, who is a landlord himself.

“I think it’s terrible legislation,” he said and read out part of the report filed to council regarding the bylaw change. “So, I’ve been a landlord for 25 years. Basically what will happen is, all of a sudden … the tenant is taken off the hook because he doesn’t have to pay his water bill. He’s going to leave your place, and he could care less.”

But Coun. Charlene Miller offered another solution. As a landlord, she said she added the utility charges into her tenants’ rent. “And so, there was no issue about the situation. Because currently, we still have arrears anyways. Even if the tenants paid or not, we still have that issue. And if the landlord put it into the rent, then we wouldn’t have that issue.”

And for Coun. Martin Ring there has to be a responsibility to the property owners, because it’s part of running their business.

“Each one of these properties requires a water hook-up, otherwise you’re going to be shut down because you have a property without running water. They need to have water, but if they’re walking away from that water bill, I mean the only other way is for us to somehow have it as a direct debit out of the person’s account or a Visa card or something that that water bills going to be automatically charged to.”

According to Dionne, the landlords are already liable for SaskEnergy and SaskPower bills that are outstanding – meaning the city isn’t doing anything different. He said the $464,000 write-off gives him “464 thousand reasons why somebody has to pay.”

However, according to Sask Energy's landlord service transfer agreement, once such an agreement to transfer responsibility to a tenant is signed, the landlord “shall not be responsible for tenant accounts,” unless the landlord is paying on behalf of a tenant that still lives at the property. 

A spokesperson for Sask Energy said the arrears would follow the tenant if their name is on the bill.

It's the same case with SaskPower. SaskPower spokesperson Tyler Hopson confirmed that payment of an outstanding bill is the responsibility of the person whose name is on the bill, so if the bill is under the tenant's name, it is their responsibility.

Dionne added that it’s up to the landlords to better qualify their tenants.

The new bylaw will be up for approval during next Monday’s council meeting.

Council to approve sale of land for new seniors’ home, multi-year tax abatement

Council could also be giving its final approval to the sale of the land at 19 Guy Drive that Caleb Group plans to build a more than 90-suite seniors’ complex on.

According to the accompanying report, the total purchase price is $875,000, and the closing date of the sale is July 21.

On top of this, council is expected to agree to a multi-year tax abatement, which would see the taxes for the property be exempt for 2015 and 2016. The amount of the abatement will decrease by 25 per cent in the following years until it is fully taxable in 2020.

During the same meeting, the executive committee forwarded recommendations to approve partial tax abatements for the municipal portions of the 2014 tax bills for

South Hill Child Care Co-operative Association, Family Futures, Inc., Prince Albert Masonic Temple Corp., and Catholic Family Services of Prince Albert Inc.

As well, the city plans to subdivide the land on the adjacent property into 18 residential lots. “It will be developed into a cul-de-sac, and a great opportunity for what I call walkouts,” he said.

There will be an open house at the Prince Albert Golf and Curling Club on May 21 to showcase plans for the new building to the public.

tjames@panow.com

On Twitter: @thiajames