By Charles Lefebvre

Changes to sewer fees taking effect in April

Jan 27, 2020 | 10:00 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB — Starting in April, it’s going to cost more for certain sewer services in Medicine Hat.

The City of Medicine Hat announced Monday they will no longer provide free services for sewer back up, CCTV camera inspection and root foaming calls.

The city says they will continue offering the services for a fee, or residents can contact a local plumber.

“We’ve been carrying out these services for free for many years,” said Brian Graham, field operations manager for the city’s environmental utilities department. “Because of economic pressures and the need to actually concentrate on our key roles and our key operations, and looking after water and wastewater infrastructure, we’ve decided that these services that are non-core, we’re going to basically continue to do them, but we’ll charge a fee for us actually attending those services.”

Fees will range from $85 for CCTV camera inspections to $400 for root foaming. Graham says the fees are similar to what a plumber would charge.

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In addition to the new fee changes, the city is also discontinuing some of their current non-core services. Residents will now have to contact a plumber for routine maintenance requests or to inspect odour complaints inside of a residence.

Graham says it’s the property owner’s responsibility to ensure their sewer lines are properly maintained.

“We’ve been carrying out these services for free for a long,long time now, and it’s only five per cent of property owners that use the service, yet we’re actually charging all the ratepayers for the services to be carried out,” he said. “So in line with the Financially Fit initiative, we’ve decided that the people who require the service should be paying for it.”

The changes will take effect on April 1.