Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Sewage fee a burden for seniors

Re: “Langford considers moving sewage fee onto water bill,” Dec. 20. This shift under consideration will move this fee from property taxes to water bills, which would, in the mayor’s words, be a “lose-lose” situation for seniors.

Re: “Langford considers moving sewage fee onto water bill,” Dec. 20.

This shift under consideration will move this fee from property taxes to water bills, which would, in the mayor’s words, be a “lose-lose” situation for seniors.

There are a surprisingly large number of seniors living in Langford who fit in with the city’s “aging in place” policy. I know quite a few of them, many who are barely making ends meet and many who are too proud to accept any help.

Their “lifesaver” is our treasured provincial property-tax deferment program for seniors, which allows them to stay in their homes. This program lets seniors who enrol defer property tax on their homes, with an interest rate of only one per cent, until either death (but surviving spouse can continue) or change in ownership, when the accumulated taxes plus interest become due and payable.

Seniors in the CRD, but likely not in Langford, will be able to defer their initial $37.68 sewage-treatment fee, rising to an eventual $332 fee, on their property taxes. This “shifting around money” is not going to be fair, but disastrous for many seniors in Langford, who can only hope that the city will push the pause button and reconsider all implications and repercussions.

Axel Brock-Miller

Langford