{"id":560479,"date":"2026-03-25T20:30:15","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:30:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/560479\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T20:30:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T20:30:15","slug":"city-of-courtenay-considers-switching-all-homes-to-water-meters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/560479\/","title":{"rendered":"City of Courtenay considers switching all homes to water meters"},"content":{"rendered":"

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The mid-Vancouver Island city of Courtenay, B.C., is considering a move to universal water metering as part of its efforts to conserve the resource. <\/p>\n

It’s one of several municipalities across the province making the switch, amidst growing concerns about drought and climate change. <\/p>\n

On Wednesday, city councillors in the city of about 30,000 people are scheduled to discuss three staff reports<\/a> on the subject, which examine potential costs and timelines.<\/p>\n

According to the reports, about 80 per cent of the city’s homes are single family houses and nearly all of them pay a flat rate for water. Institutional, commercial, industrial and multi-residential customer classes are largely metered, and pay per use. <\/p>\n

The reports say water usage on metered properties are mostly stable throughout the year, whereas water use for single family homes more than doubles in the summer, most likely for irrigation and “discretionary seasonal use.”<\/p>\n

\"A‘Discretionary seasonal use’ is one of the biggest causes of increased water use for single-family homes in peak summer months, according to a staff report from the City of Courtenay. (CBC News)<\/p>\n

Because non-metered properties use a lot more water without paying for the additional cost, the reports say, properties with meters are subsidizing the cost of the utility. <\/p>\n

Using meters to tie water usage to cost per use is the most effective way to reduce per-capita water consumption, the reports say, and can also help detect leaks on private properties. <\/p>\n

$29M in capital investment<\/p>\n

The cost to switch over the majority of homes to a water meter system would be considerable \u2014 the reports say the initial capital investment would cost about $29 million. <\/p>\n

The water meters would need to be replaced in another 20 years, and the reports say there would be added costs like software licensing and extra staff. <\/p>\n

“Although capital costs are significant, the long-term savings derived from reduced consumption, deferred infrastructure capacity projects, and improved operational efficiency outweigh the expenses,” the reports say, adding that the net benefit of the program would be about $12 million over a 25-year period.<\/p>\n

The reports say the cost of having meters would impact households differently, because the city would likely implement a tiered approach to pricing. This would include a fixed base rate, and then a higher-priced tier for water use above that level. <\/p>\n

Stress on the water system<\/p>\n

The biggest goal of switching to universal metering is to reduce water consumption, the reports say, to decrease stress on the regional water system during dry summer months and improve its overall reliability. <\/p>\n

Like many municipalities on east Vancouver Island, Courtenay has been stricken by drought in the last few years, having reached B.C.’s drought Level 4 (out of 5) or higher four times in the last five years. <\/p>\n

The reports outline different timelines for implementing the proposed change, which vary from voluntary adoption over nearly 30 years, to an aggressive implementation that would see all properties switched over in five years. <\/p>\n

City staff recommend a blended approach that would begin with about 2,500 meter-ready properties, voluntary installation and a final mandatory installation phase, all over a 12-year period. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Listen to this article Estimated 3 minutes The audio version of this article is generated by AI-based technology.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":560480,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[49,48,295,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-560479","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-environment","11":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560479","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=560479"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/560479\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/560480"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=560479"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=560479"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=560479"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}