An upcoming Hamilton funding change might hit farmers hard in their wallets.
The Stormwater Incentive Program, dubbed the rain tax by some, won't come into effect until September 2025 – but Flamborough farmers are concerned about what it’s going to cost them.
At a meeting on Jan. 18, Ward 13 Coun. Alex Wilson said the program isn’t a new tax or levy, but a change in how the city’s stormwater management is funded.
The stormwater system is currently funded through property taxes.
With the new funding model, businesses and residences with non-absorbent surfaces on their properties, like blacktop parking lots or large buildings, will be charged for the upkeep of stormwater collection systems.
While rural properties are outside of Hamilton’s city sewer system, there are still stormwater fees in Flamborough, Wilson told constituents at the public meeting.
The councillor said rural ditch and drain clearing costs the city around $3 million a year, and rural property owners only foot half of that bill through their property taxes.
Rural residents unhappy with proposal
But many rural residents and farm owners are against the change, saying they do not want to pay into a system that mostly impacts people living in Hamilton’s towns and cities with sewer connections.
One Flamborough resident, David Veldman, called the change “asinine.”
Veldman lives on a rural property downhill from Safari Road, part of which is known for flooding frequently. He said runoff water from the municipal roads that meet at the corner of his property often pools on his land.
“I have basically three Hamilton-based rural culverts, or ditches, that all run into and culminate on the corner of my property, and because my property is on a hill, it all runs out down into my property,” he said.
Bre Paszkat, a Flamborough resident who uses a well and septic system, said she doesn’t understand why she would be charged for clearing ditches when there is no ditch on her property.
“This sounds like once again I am being taxed for services I don’t have,” she said.
If the city is going to charge residents for stormwater, Veldman said, they should do a better job at managing it – something rural residents already do themselves.
“When you look at farmers who already have their own ponds, it doesn’t make sense,” he said, adding that rural residents often build their own methods for storing stormwater.
Other municipalities backtracking on stormwater changes
Provincial president of the Ontario Farmers Association Drew Spoelstra says other municipalities, like Brampton and Peel, have made the change and are already backtracking. He said he hopes Hamilton also reconsiders.
“This is Hamilton’s third kick at this and this is the furthest it's gotten,” he said.
Spoelstra runs a dairy farm in Binbrook, within the municipality of Hamilton. He said there should be more consideration for how farmland helps manage stormwater.
“Our land and soil takes on a lot of water. We are capturing a lot of that water, we’re filtering a lot of that water, we are doing a lot of good environmental work.”
Wilson acknowledged that rural residents, farms and businesses build their own ponds and cisterns to deal with stormwater.
“We are waiting on staff reports to come back on the numbers on this, but we support an exemption for agricultural properties,” Wilson said at the meeting.
