Hamilton pitches updates to contentious stormwater fees to farm community
The city says rural landowners will benefit from stormwater fee “credits” - but other municipalities, like Brant County, propose to exempt agricultural areas altogether.
Hamilton will pitch an updated version of its contentious stormwater fee to skeptical farm community members this week.
But the new Hamilton proposal, featuring rebates meant to cut costs for rural residents, comes as the neighbouring County of Brant assures its own residents that agricultural areas will be exempt from a similar proposed stormwater fee.
“Hamilton is going to have a really hard time getting this through if farms — literally next door (in Brant) — aren’t being similarly taxed,” suggested Janice Currie, a Carluke farm property resident who expected to face a $1,000 stormwater fee under the city’s initial proposal.
City promises changes to help farms facing bills in the tens of thousands from a new program
An updated program designed to provide “credits” to properties with large amounts of green space could rebate up to 97 per cent of fees for some large Hamilton farm properties.
A consultant will present the updated plan Thursday to members of the city’s agricultural and rural subcommittee, which Currie will soon join as a new member.
The city’s new stormwater fee — once derided by critics as a “rain tax” — is meant to help cash-strapped Hamilton cover the rising, climate change-fuelled costs of managing stormwater and preventing floods and sewer spills. Many other cities in Ontario have already adopted similar fees.
But local farmers raised the alarm late last year that the proposed rate structure could put some of them out of business with annual fees for some properties estimated to be in the thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars.
Council asked city staff to come back with a plan that “recognizes rural properties as different.”
That updated plan offers specific credits for properties with a lot of green space — like farms — as well as separate credits for landowners who have already taken steps to clean or divert stormwater.
Examples of credits for various properties in the presentation posted online suggest fee rebates between 84 per cent and 97 per cent.
Still, other municipalities have taken a different approach — including the County of Brant, which told The Spectator last month that agricultural properties would be exempt from the storm fees.
There’s still time for feedback on the latest Hamilton proposal, since a final recommendation on stormwater fee credits is not expected to go before city council until June.
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The farming subcommittee meeting will meet at 7 p.m. Thursday at city hall.
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