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Neighbours
Stop me if you’ve heard this one before. A stranger pulls a tanker truck up to the Belleville plant at the bottom of Sidney Street. They fill their massive container, paying $2.42 for each cubic metre of water they take. The water may be destined to lubricate Donald Trump’s personal water slide at Mar-a-Lago. It does not matter. They pay $2.42 per m3. Meanwhile, Prince Edward County—a neighbour— maintains a pipe running from Rossmore under the Norris Whitney Bridge connected to the same Sidney Street water plant. The County pays $4.21 per cubic metre. Same water. Same plant. Same cost. But our good neighbours charge us a whopping 73 per cent premium to the price charged to every other bulk water customer. Does that sound fair?
This rotten deal has been in place since 1988. More than 2 million cubic metres of water (likely much more) have flowed across the Bay of Quinte since then. The cost of this neighbourliness has added several million dollars to the cost of Rossmore’s water supply.
But it gets better. Since amalgamation, the pain of this arrangement has been shared by all County water consumers. Rossmore, and later Fenwood Gardens, residents were spared the full brunt of Belleville’s exorbitant surcharge when the Shire Hall imposed equal billing for all waterworks customers in Prince Edward County. A decision that forever condemned Wellington and Picton residents to subsidize the water in Rossmore, Fenwood Gardens, Peat’s Point, Carrying Place and Consecon. But that is a different story.
This column has drawn a red circle around this festering deal with Belleville many times over the past decade and half. Nothing ever came from it. A few meetings. Belleville was happy with the arrangement and unwilling to talk about it. Meanwhile, successive municipal leaders were reluctant to make waves. Best not to embarrass a neighbour. Much easier just to pay the bill each month.
Complicating this conundrum, County waterworks consumers have never been represented by a majority of council members. Therefore it was never a priority. The issue was swept under the rug.
So we paid. And paid. And continue to pay. Because it is not their money, Council’s interests have never been aligned with interests of the customers of the County’s waterworks utility.
On average, the County takes just under 11,000 cubic metres of Belleville water each month. At the current rate, it cost us about $46,000 per month for this water. Had we paid the bulk rate—paid by every other of Belleville’s bulk water customers—the monthly cost would drop to $26,500. Instantly. If we paid the same rate as Belleville residents pay, the monthly bill would be about $16,600.
But something changed last week. This terrible deal was pulled out from under the rug and thrust into the bright sunshine. So that everyone can see how much County water consumers pay for neighbourliness.
It was an innocuous item on last week’s council agenda. Labelled as a renewal agreement, it was tucked between Picton Fairground’s future and STA updates. As such it was never going to get the headline the item deserved. Ultimately it is unclear whether Council even discussed the report since the livestream video seems to have failed during this portion of the agenda.
The illuminating report, however, laid out all the dreadful facts in brilliant detail. For all to see. The gross overcharging. The neglect by successive County councils. Over 33 years.
Last year the deal’s 14-year term was extended by 12 months. But rather than extend it again, Shire Hall wants to re-negotiate a better arrangement. A fair deal. They propose a much smaller premium for Belleville’s water—a flat rate of $739 per month plus $1.92 per m3 for the first 455 m3 and $1.41 m3 for the next 22,275 m33. More than Belleville residents pay, less than a stranger with a tanker truck pays. It will result in a reduction of about $30,000 per month in the cost of this water.
Belleville’s city manager Rod Bovay says the original deal and renewal in 2006 were “freely negotiated by both municipalities.” I think he is right. Because these deals were made in the dark. Out of sight. It was a time when a reporter showing up at a public meeting caused the proceedings to stop—the discussion to go silent, meetings to abruptly end.
You may recall that this was about the same time Shire Hall ripped up an agreement between Quinte West and water consumers in Carrying Place and Consecon. Shire Hall only told these residents what it had done after the fact—when they were hiking their water rates. These folks were midway through a ten-year deal that had required each water consumer to pay $5,000 to connect to the new system upfront. Unbeknownst to them, however, Shire Hall had other, more expensive, plans for them.
Ultimately, so few council members were (are) users of the water system that these minor betrayals never resulted in action. This time, however, it will be much harder to stuff this foul remnant under the rug again.
I don’t expect that the peasants toiling in the shires of England in the late 17th century felt the dawning of the Age of Enlightenment, any more than a caterpillar is aware it has become a butterfly. But sometimes, these thresholds are a bit more discernable as they are occurring.
This column has long awaited the day that the shame of this terrible deal would stir Shire Hall to act. It is not as though we were without levers. We are not powerless. We aren’t victims. Nor are Belleville’s municipal leaders villains.
We are neighbours, sharing a common waterway and a bridge. Our economies are intricately interwoven. We live, work and play on both sides of this bridge. It is such an obvious metaphor for the respect and interdependence with which we should regard each other. Yet, here we are.
Shire Hall has undertaken to hammer out a fair deal. One that compensates Belleville for their costs, their trouble and bit extra. Belleville ought to seize this opportunity. To put this stain behind our communities.
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