At an extraordinary infrastructure committee meeting on Tuesday, councillors discussed the council’s submission on the draft Water Services Legislation Bill and the Water Services Economic Efficiency and Consumer Protection Bill.
Infrastructure manager Erin Moogan presented a draft letter to elected members which aimed to resume the concerns, questions and feedback from the council in relation to both bills.
Among them were around the implication for the council to have to continue to be involved in charging for those services provided by the new Three Waters entity.
"At the moment we could be required to provide that service to the new entities through to 2029," she said.
She said the council would have come to an agreement with the new entities on its terms and conditions, but if this did not happen, the conditions would "essentially" be determined by the ministry.
"ICC staff feel that this compels us to essentially have toprovide that charging and that is something that we don’t agree with," she said.
"These are assets that [we are] no longer are responsible for so we don’t think we should be compelled to continue to be involved in charging those."
She believed this would create confusion for ratepayers about who would be responsible for those assets.
Ms Moogan said council was also concerned by the implication the new entity would have exemptions from paying rates on pipes and roads.
The council currently charges rates on infrastructure networks — including charging itself — for its three waters networks, she said.
She believed the inability of council to charge an uniform annual general charge and general rates would impact council revenue and its ability to provide services to the community
"That is a key revenue for council going forward, and if we don’t have that revenue, it would provide a significant gap fund in the rates space."
The submission stated the new water entity was part of the community it operated in and, for that reason, it also needed to contribute.
Councillors approved the draft presented by Mrs Moogan and were told the document would be available online for the public.
Submissions on the draft bills are due by tomorrow.
