‘Ripping people off’: Regina man on disability refuses to pay high water bills

Regina’s smart water meters are still causing problems for residents.

Last 980 CJME reported that some were facing issues with the new meter, saying their bills had increased.

Alan Bodnarchuk, a Regina man on disability, said his bill nearly doubled after his meter was replaced — and he says he’s refusing to pay.

“When they changed the water meter from the mechanical water meter to the beta version, it was like $220 bucks,” he said. “Immediately I phoned the city and said ‘There’s no way this is right.'”

The city told him the increase was likely from seasonal watering, but Bodnarchuk said he doesn’t water his lawn.

Then he was told it was because he had leaks, but he said did tests to prove that wrong.

“I did a dye test in the tank, and also a dry powdered dye test in the bowl,” Bodnarchuk said.

“(I found) no leaks. All of my sinks, I put catch containers under everything and no leaks. So then they made me take not one water meter reading, but three. After the third one, they still refused to accept that this water meter was wrong.”

Bodnarchuk said the city is overcharging him, and other customers as well.

“I don’t care what they tell people; they’re ripping people off,” he said. “I’ve had old people that don’t use any water say the same thing.”

Bodnarchuk said he did an experiment and saved multiple loads of laundry and dishes to reduce his water use even more, but his bill was still higher than normal.

He said his bills went back to normal after three months, but he’s refusing to pay the expensive bills.

“They don’t care about people’s lives,” he said. “They don’t care about their mistakes or their technology that’s flawed.”

He’s worried the city will take him to collections and he could lose his home due to his credit rating dropping.

“So then I would be homeless,” he said. “I would be homeless after living here 24 years because of the City of Regina threats.”

He wants other people facing the same issues to come together.

“I think it’s time for people to do a class-action lawsuit, because people don’t do anything until it goes public,” he said. “That’s when things change.”

Bodnarchuk  isn’t the only one facing these problems.

There’s a Facebook group called ‘Regina Water Meter Accuracy Alliance,’ with just over 1,000 members in it. The group aims to bring people together in order to get answers from the city about “inconsistent water meter readings and unexplained charges.”

Members from the group met with Mayor Sandra Masters to talk about what can be done to solve the problem. The group and Masters both acknowledged that change won’t happen overnight, but agreed that something needs to change.

“We got a lot of great professionals that take what they do quite seriously,” Masters said. “Just giving them an avenue to to go and investigate even a sampling of these to double-check the data transmission and check that usage when there’s no explanation for it.”

She said the concerns brought up by the group were heard and will be forwarded to the appropriate people.

City responds

In a statement, the city responded to a number of questions and concerns about the meters.

It said the meters cannot be calibrated remotely.

As for getting results back from a water meter test, the city said the customer has options.

“When the City tests a water meter the customer has the option to be on-site to witness the test,” the statement read. “Following the test, the City will contact the customer to notify them of the results. If requested, the City will provide the customer with a copy of the tests results.”

When it comes to unpaid bills, the city does offer two types of penalty-free payment options to customers with past due balances.

“Customers can sign up for Budget Billing and pay the past due amount in 12 equal installments,” the City said. “An equalized payment will be calculated based on the last 12 months of billing history and directly debited from the customer’s bank account.

“Customers can request a customized payment arrangement to pay the account balance in monthly installments.”

But if a customer refuses to pay their bill, the city might disconnect that service and possibly take the customer to collections.

“Alternatively, if the Water & Waste customer is the owner of the property, the City may transfer the past due amount to their property tax account prior to service disconnection,” it said.

The City of Regina began its Water Meter Upgrade Project in October of 2022.

In September, the project was 81 per cent complete and more than 61,000 meters had been installed.