Norfolk water bills going up in 2026

Luke Edwards

Grant Haven Media

Norfolk County water users will face another steep increase in 2026 as the municipality continues to tackle a challenging shortfall in infrastructure funding for water and wastewater services.

Council approved a 10.1 per cent increase for 2026, which equates to a monthly increase of $14.83 for a residential home consuming 12 cubic metres. Staff and politicians both acknowledged the significant increases of this year and last, though stressed it’s a necessary response to both ensure safe and reliable drinking water and to respond to legislative changes from Queen’s Park.

“We know our rates are high. We know our water bills are higher than that of our neighbouring municipalities,” said general manager of public works Andrew Grice. 

“But our rate budget is driven purely by capital investment and that’s to close our infrastructure gap and maintain levels of service that our council has adopted as part of our asset management plan.”

To that point, 7.27 of the 10.1 per cent increase is “driven by reserve contributions and debt servicing costs required for funding capital projects,” a staff report said.

With $425 million in rate related expenditures identified in the 2026-2035 capital asset plan in addition to $173 million already approved, covering future costs isn’t going to get easier anytime soon.

“Simply put, without monumental changes to funding available for rate related capital projects Norfolk may become the municipality with the highest rate debt outstanding per capita across the entire province,” said Chris Everets, manager of financial planning.

Familiar reasons like inflation are driving some of the increased costs, but staff said changes in asset management legislation has also changed the math. With more stringent requirements on how municipalities plan capital projects, finance departments are now having to plan for future expenditures hundreds of millions of dollars above what they were only five years ago.

One thing that’s not driving the increases, staff pointed out, is growth. Pushing back against a narrative Coun. Adam Veri said exists in the community, CAO Al Meneses said much of the work required isn’t expanding service.

“I think we can comfortably say and confidently say that the vast majority of these costs are related to the condition of the assets and the fact they need to be replaced,” he said.

“If the residents are thinking that a lot of this increase is related to growth and growth is what is driving the increase the answer is: no it’s not.”

In fact, part of the issue in Norfolk is the limited number of water users who are required to pay for a massive system. Veri said it mostly comes down to three options: grants, growth or increases for existing users.

Despite calling it a “doom and gloom” budget, Mayor Amy Martin credited staff and her councillors for making the difficult decisions required. However, she was also clear in her belief that Norfolk can’t solve things alone.

“Without additional and consistent support from senior levels of government meeting our funding needs they will remain beyond local means,” she said.

With the new strong mayor powers, Martin had the ability to amend the budget staff presented, but didn’t. She said especially in the case of something as important as safe drinking water, politicians should rely on staff expertise.

“Those decisions should never be politicized or altered for short term gain,” she said.

“They should be guided by expertise, not expedience.”