Council Briefs

News and notes from the Dec. 19 regular meeting of Estevan city council.



The bylaw setting the utility rates for 2012 was passed at the Dec.19 meeting and as expected, council has agreed upon a 10 per cent increase.

Mayor Gary St. Onge said the increase is necessary to keep pace with the growing costs of operating the City's water and wastewater system.

"We have to take in the same amount of money that we spend," St. Onge said during the meeting. "We raise the water rates whenever we need more money to pay the costs."

St. Onge said the City has a couple of major projects currently on the go - a new reservoir to allow for development in the City's north end and renovations at the wastewater plant which he noted was designed wrong when it was first built.

The mayor also rebuffed claims that a rate increase is backdoor taxation, noting that the City of Estevan has bylaws prohibiting it from moving money from the utility fund into the general fund.



The building permits report for November was also released at the meeting. The City issued just six permits throughout the month. Those permits had a combined value of $1.43 million.
The bulk of the total came from single family home starts as four permits, with a combined value of $1.16 million were issued.

For the year, the City has issued 138 permits with a value of just over $40 million. That is $9 million down from the same time in 2010, however last year's total did include the permit for the $14 million Energy Training Institute that cannot be taxed by the City.



It was also noted that council will spend $5,000 to be part of a housing study spearheaded by the Saskatchewan Southeast Enterprise Region.

Councillor Chris Istace, who will serve as the City's representative on the committee, said a housing planner has been hired to research what is needed in communities throughout the southeast.

"They want a committee formed of all the people that would know what is needed, be it from realtors, ministerial associations, builders, council members, chamber members," said Istace.

"They are going to find out what we need to build in Estevan so that we are better prepared for the businesses coming to town, the economic development as well as the developers."