Water and sewer rates in the town of Neepawa could see a sharp rise in 2016. Council gave first reading to a new rate by-law at last night's meeting. Mayor Adrian de Groot says the last major revision was proposed in 2008, and a subsequent application was halted, for a number of reasons. He says they realized they'd need to adjust their rates when going through their budget documents last year, and are now submitting a new proposal.

De Groot describes the possible increase as significant, noting between the time since the last review and a new Public Utilities Board mandate, rates could rise by an average of 28 per cent for domestic users.

"They're trying to make (utilities) self-sustaining. So that it will basically be a full consumer-paid scenario, rather than on your property taxes or things like that."

He explains while he agrees with making the utility able to support itself, it's going to lead to a major rate hike for residents.

"There's nothing wrong with that. However, the impact of the changes because it hasn't been done for a while plus the new rules of compliance to what's called the public sector accounting board --who made this recommendation which was adopted by government-- as a consequence will lead to a significant increase."

De Groot says the 28 per cent average increase will cover between 2016 and 2018, with much smaller increases planned after that timeframe. He notes while it's never good to see such a sharp rise in rates, they were left without much choice.

"There's not a whole lot of flexibility for municipalities. It's not only us, it's all the municipalities in Manitoba are governed by the same rules that will see the significant increase based on the calculations that we have to do."

While the rate for domestic users will see a sharp increase, de Groot anticipates their wholesale water rate will actually slightly decrease.