Tuesday, March 24, 2015

March 24 2015 Council Meeting Update on Watermetergate

Highlights: Council turned down the request from the Resorts to keep water rates at winter levels this summer.
-all hotel meters have now been replaced
-water rates have been based on data from faulty meters and will be reviewed sometime in 2015
-once the meters had been changed there was additional sewer and water revenue of $111,250 in 2014
-One account had been under billed since 2004, others for at least five years
-Councillors Thicke and McMaster  questioned as to how this could go on for so long without being noticed ?

12 comments:

Anonymous said...

Which resorts got a free ride at the resident's expense for up to 10 years?

Obviously we haven't been paying enough money to the public works folks so that they could go to school and learn to notice that the answers they were getting, the meter readings, 'looked funny'.
I guess they weren't paid to think and we the public made the assumption that the public works folks were thinking.
Doh!!!!! We should have known better after the discovery of that sewer meter reading fiasco near the House of Himwitsa.
Sort of similar where the reading is done by a machine, it must be accurate. No thinking or questioning involved.
Now how much extra did all the citizens have to pay to carry those hotels? Anyone got a number for that?

Anonymous said...

$111.250 can you imagine what the REAL number would be when all meters were replaced on Jan 1.2014 (... 4, 5, 600K ??)

and what was the answer that Thicke and Macmaster got their question?

Ralph Tieleman said...

There wasn't a definitive answer given .

Anonymous said...

You know you'd think that if x amount of water is treated that you would be metering/ billing for that x amount of water being used. Wouldn't that be something rather in your face that something was wrong?

Anonymous said...

I wanna refund!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This town is a total rip off. We're trying our best to live, just live, here. It's ridiculous. Can we just get back to basics and forget all the resort hype and shit? Our family has been here for five years - young kids - and we're barely making it. Why do we shovel money into the tourism stuff when our residents have basic needs?

Anonymous said...

sooo will the resorts who have obviously used a public resource to help them run their businesses and generate their profits be expected to repay what they have used? I know if a bank accidentally was putting money into my account and then realized their mistake, they would take it back in a heartbeat. much faith lost in the D of T and big shame on the resorts for letting this go on ...

Anonymous said...

I'm amazed that this story has just died. Not even a mention in The Westerly. Who or which department is responsible for this screw-up?

Ralph Tieleman said...


Public works and finance share responsibility for this mess.

Anonymous said...

@8:29
It makes you wonder when Westerly News fails to properly report "HEADLINE NEWS" to our community?
Hmmm.. but every week several glorified stories about our fantastic mayor

Nothing going on here people.
Easter egg hunt at the botanical gardens this year (too much dog shit on the village green I guess?)

Anonymous said...

I may gave missed it but what is the best approximation in litres down the drain and dollars missed out on as revenue to the D of T ?

Anonymous said...

There was a pretty long story about it in the newspaper about a month ago. Im not sure saying there was no mention of it is fair.

http://issuu.com/tofino-ucluelet-westerly/docs/westerly_news_03.18.15/1

Anonymous said...

@2:46
TOFINO NEWS is the only one who reported the ‘presentation from Financial Services’ on March 24……WHY because Ralph cares.
Nothing in the paper……. Why wouldn’t you write a story about that presentation & some of the comments/compliments our Councillors made regarding Watermetergate ?….