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Anopinion piece in Monday’s Citizen by Carleton-Mississippi Mills MPP Jack MacLaren didn’t give an accurate account of the facts. Allow me to explain.

The issue at hand is the City of Ottawa’s proposed water, sewer and stormwater rate structure review, with the main focus on the stormwater component of that review. Mr. MacLaren insists that “rural property owners already pay a tax designed to maintain roads, culverts and ditches.” He is wrong. We actually do not pay a tax that goes toward culverts and ditches.

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In the minutes of the July 11, 2001 meeting of council, you can see that all stormwater charges were to “be totally funded from the sewer surcharges.” This means that the costs of every ditch cleanout, culvert renewal and stormwater sewer repair in the rural area was entirely shifted from the General Tax Levy to the water and sewer rate. To further emphasize this change, in that same approved recommendation, council declared that the General Tax Levy would include all services formerly in the general levies of the area municipalities except stormwater management services. Therefore, we used to pay a tax for culverts and ditches, but now only those select few in villages such as Richmond, Munster, Manotick and Carp foot the bill in the rural area.