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“Everything miraculously stopped leaking when Enmax installed a new water meter. Now our bills are only about $70 per month for both water and wastewater during the peak water season when we’re watering our lawn.”

They said the technician who changed their meter told them the amount of water they used would have more than filled up their basement several times over.

The couple, who own a maintenance company, say they are not impressed with the service they have received from Enmax and the city.

“If we treated our customers like they treated us, we’d be out of business, no question,” said 40-year-old Fabiola.

Some of the stories of overcharging would be funny if they didn’t represent such an outrageous expropriation by city hall of its citizens’ money for no goods and services at all.

For the January-February period, Jos Jonkers received the highest water bill he’s ever received from Enmax, the city-owned utility.

What makes his $300 water charge so bizarre is not so much the amount, when compared with other overcharges. It’s that the 62-year-old retired geologist and his wife were away in Palm Springs, Calif., at the time, and he had turned off his main water valve, as he always does prior to travelling.

“The meter should have indicated that our consumption was zero, instead we had a $300 bill,” said Jonkers.

“I argued with (Enmax) and I wasn’t making any progress so I paid the bill because it wasn’t significant enough to fight city hall over. They kept telling me that I had a leak, and I said, ‘how can that be, because the water was turned off.’ ”