The Manitoba town of Lynn Lake is floating a 17 per cent increase in the cost of water, even though it continues to discourage its residents from drinking it.

People are speaking out about the proposed rate hike in the northern Manitoba community, which has faced a boil-water advisory since 2012.

"It's absolutely ludicrous that they could expect the ratepayers of Lynn Lake to pay more money for water that they can't even drink," former mayor Audie Dulewich said.

The town of fewer than 500 people, more than 800 kilometres northwest of Winnipeg, is proposing a minimum quarterly charge of $356.14 for the average single-family residence, up from the existing $302.60 price.

The new total would exceed the average quarterly water bill of a family of four in Winnipeg, which the city of Winnipeg estimates to be approximately $342, and it would be triple the rates of other northern communities, including Thompson and Snow Lake.

People leave shrinking town

The former mining town must run its water system on a break-even basis, according to provincial regulation, unless it receives approval from the Public Utilities Board. The water utility owes the town more than $1 million.

If the increase goes through, Dulewich said the price of water would be three times higher than it was at the start of the decade. Coupled with the additional cost of buying bottled drinking water, he said it's a price many residents can no longer afford.

"In the case of my mom, who's 81 years old, we have to haul water for her from the Northern Store," he said. "Some of these other elderly widows, they weren't capable of hauling it on their own [either]. It's a lot easier for them to just move to a community where they can turn on the tap and just drink the water."

Manitoba's Provincial Road 391 ends on Lynn Lake's Sherritt Avenue, where many businesses have been boarded up for years. (Cameron MacIntosh/CBC)

And some people have already left, said Dulewich, who was mayor from 1990 to 2010.

The proposed rate change — the first since 2016 — must be endorsed by the Public Utilities Board to take effect. If enough people raise concerns, the board may choose to hold a public hearing.

Lynn Lake Mayor Jim Shortt is asking residents to complain about the hike put forward by his council.

"We don't want any [businesses] closing down. We don't want anybody leaving," he said, and the cost of living in northern Manitoba is already high. "We're fighting that battle and hopefully again the community has a strong enough bark that the PUB takes everything into consideration."

Too small to afford it

Shortt said water rates were cheap for years and the town is trying to catch up. Lynn Lake is grappling with a water treatment plant in need of major repairs, he said, and a population base — under 500 people — too small to pay for them.

Ratepayers must put their objections into writing and forward them to the PUB for consideration, he said. He hopes the board delays the increase.

Vicki Phillips, another resident, is calling on the provincial government for help.

A cup of discoloured water from the taps in Lynn Lake is shown on the right. (Submitted by Jenna Dulewich)

In Lynn Lake's heyday, 3,500 people called the mining town home, with water infrastructure to match its size. Now that the mines have closed, Phillips said, the community cannot run the same system with significantly fewer people paying for it.

There were just 494 residents, according to the 2016 census, a 27 per cent drop from 2011.

"The town is required to pay their debt for sure, but they're also trying to run an entire town" that once had thousands of people, Phillips said.

"It has to keep running," she said about the existing infrastructure. "There's a working hospital here — it's the only hospital within hundreds of kilometres."

Phillips and some neighbours recently approached town council and offered to help apply for grants to fix the town's water infrastructure system, including the water treatment plant.

Shortt said the town appreciates the help, but is pursuing various grants on its own. Fixing the plant and nixing the boil-water advisory are top priorities for council, he said.

They've asked for aid through the province's Mining Community Reserve Fund, but their requests have been turned down, he said.

The sun rises over Lynn Lake's Sherritt Avenue in this 2016 file image. (Cameron MacIntosh/CBC)

Phillips said townspeople have dealt with numerous water breaks over the summer. On her street, they were forced to use hoses rather than pipes for several months this year, to feed water from hydrants.

The bottom line is that Lynn Lake needs help just to maintain the status quo, she said.

"It needs to go to higher levels of government, because we don't have the money," she said.

The Manitoba government said it offered technical and financial assistance earlier this year so the town could study possible upgrades to its water treatment system.

It is also working to resolve the boil-water advisory, a provincial spokesperson said in a statement.