The wheels are in motion for a change to Prince George residents' utility bills.
On Wednesday, mayor and council met as a committee of the whole to discuss, among other things, future funding of the city's assets.
The committee endorsed the creation of a snow, ice and stormwater utility, which would remove the funding of management for those services out of the general tax levy and into their own dedicated fund.
This is an idea that's been percolating at city hall since 2004, said wastewater supervisor Gina Layte-Liston, and the user-pay model is one gaining traction in other Canadian cities.
City staff are proposing a tiered flat-rate model where charges are assigned based on the property's land use or zoning classification.
There is generally a correlation between zone type and the higher volume of water runoff - a residential property would have less runoff than a commercial or industrial one with many hard surfaces such as such as roofs, parking areas and sidewalks, Layte-Liston said.
"The idea of including snow management in the stormwater utility rate is supportable as snow melt runoff impacts city storm sewer infrastructure, ditches and snow disposal sites," she added in her report to committee.
Coun. Cameron Stolz said he was intrigued by the idea that the utility would charge residents based on the service they're receiving.
"That way people who have better snow service - such as the downtown that has their snow actually hauled away and the sidewalks are cleaned everyday and all the rest of that - have a different fee than those who live in the rural part of the city that have a truck go by and pile the snow off to the side," he said.
By switching to a fund dedicated to the utility, it would ensure that all revenue collected can only be used to pay for those specific activities.
The new utility would also ensure all revenue collected was dedicated to its specified services and couldn't be redirected to other projects.
Once city council gives the proposal the okay, it will still be a few years before the change comes into effect.
There is an estimated cost of more than $500,000 over two years to hire consultants, go through the public consultation process, have a legal review, develop a new bylaw, build billing databases and train staff before the utility would be up and running.
Mayor Shari Green and Coun. Brian Skakun questioned the need to bring in consultants to develop the program.
"Do we have the capability within existing staff to do the prep work?" Green asked.
The time needed to put all of the pieces together is too much for city staff to do off the side of their desk and though there are staff who could do the job, they would need to be pulled off of their regular work, said operations superintendent Bill Gall.
