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Post by Mark Dewdney on Mar 8, 2010 13:02:50 GMT -5
As of April Fool's Day (appropriate) the City will now start charging you $16 extra per water bill if you're not the owner of the property. This is, apparently, an "administrative fee", and it will be tacked onto every bill. So, if you're renting and paying utilities, your bill just got hiked by $16 per month - or $192 per year.
John F. Reid of Toronto writes, "Bad enough if they think it’s reasonable to charge one, initial $16 fee, but to charge it every time they send you a bill is plain theft. This does not even grandfather those already in the system who are now receiving the bills directly — that database will be wiped out and everyone must reapply for the privilege of being gouged. Outrageous."
I agree. My grandfather, a very fiscally responsible man, had a saying; "A buck here, a buck there, sooner or later you're talking real money."
I don't know about councillors, but I know what my family could do with an "extra" $192 per year; that's a good-sized grocery bill.
Tell me what you think.
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Post by Hybrid0920 on Mar 10, 2010 23:47:04 GMT -5
This is just cruel to tenants of Toronto. Not right to charge "fees" like that. If I used 1 litre of water just before I went on vacation for 3 months, and 1 litre of water costs $0.01, then my bill will be $16.01? I think the gov't and city has to get their act together. Charge extra for luxuries, not neccessities.
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Post by Mark Dewdney on Mar 11, 2010 17:41:49 GMT -5
The thing that ticks me off is that this isn't just an administrative fee once a year. THIS IS MONTHLY!
Let's say that there are only 100,000 renters in Toronto (yeah, right).
100,000 times $16? You're telling me it costs $1.6 million PER MONTH to administer the bills for every 100,000 renters in Toronto? I BET there's at LEAST 800,000 people who rent in Toronto. Wow, that's 12.8m.
Someone needs their math checked - I doubt that it costs $1.6m/100k renters PER YEAR to send those bills out (and if it does, then someone's skimming.)
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