tofino news

Tuesday, March 17, 2015

Watermetergate Solution

If your BC Hydro meter malfunctions you are billed based on past consumption. The obvious solution is for the customers that were not charged the full amount for their water use to meet with the District and figure out what a fair repayment would be.
For their part the District should review staff actions and reporting policies to make sure this doesn't happen again.
I'm sure that the customers that were under charged will want to preserve their good name in the community.

Thursday, March 12, 2015

Watermetergate Scandal Update

I met with Bob Macpherson,the District of Tofino CAO to discuss the Watermetergate scandal today.This is what I learned:
The DOT Finance department alerted the Administration to the problems with the water billing in May of 2014.
Two meters to resorts were showing only 10% of the actual water consumption. (click on above chart)
There were problems with other water meters showing less than actual consumption.
The water meters at all the major resorts and two fish plants have been changed.
Since the water meters have been changed there has been a $60,000 surplus accumulated in the operational reserve of the water system.
None of the resorts notified the District that they were being undercharged on their water consumption.
The District doesn't have an exact figure on potential losses but a review of water bills from the past decade or so should provide an approximation.A review of water bills should also give a timeline as to when the water meters began to malfunction.
Using the figures provided by the West Coast Resort Association the District of Tofino failed to account for approximately 2,411,861 gallons of water in one quarter alone !!!