Property Management A Regional report focusing on the GTA, Hamilton & Niagara July 2012
Vol.19 No 4
Report
Province Halts Geothermal Drilling
New Code Standards for Balconies
Re-evaluating Runoff Toronto Water Brainstorms to Keep Capital Plans Afloat By Barbara Carss
Congestion Reduction Strategies
Contents Storm Water Management Charges Ground Source Heat Pump Regulation Ontario Building Code Addresses Energy Cycling’s Economic Spinoffs
1 7 10 12
Advocates for the commercial real estate industry are united in opposition to a suggested new formula for calculating Toronto’s storm water service charges. The fee is still conceptual and just one of the discussion items in a more wide-ranging public consultation on the City’s need to augment capital funding for its water infrastructure, but is envisioned as a userpay approach based on a proper t y’s impervious surface area and the resulting volume of storm water runoff. City staff sees it as a potential means to raise additional revenue and/or create a better balance between the rates property owners pay and the storm water services they receive. Cur rently, storm water
management is funded through the water rates, thus tying ratepayers’ contribution to the volume of water they consume. “For every dollar collected, about 15% of it goes to storm water management and that’s expected to increase to about 30% in the next 30 years so it’s a growing part of the [water] program,” reports Adir Gupta, Manager of Financial Policy in Toronto’s Corporate Finance department. “But there is inequity. There is no relation between water consumed and the runoff.” Meanwhile, the public consultation occurs in the broader context of a capital funding shortfall. Toronto’s long-range water infrastructure program, which City Council approved in 2006, was to be Continued on page 4.