It looks like the way the city charges you for water use is about to change.

This year, you’ve been billed with a 60/40 fixed/variable split meaning 60 per cent of your bill is the same amount every month and the remaining 40 per cent is based on how much water you use.

A council committee is recommending that change to a 50/50 which would mean a lower bill for your average homeowner who conserves water.

Chief Financial officer Margaret Karpenko says this means that next year the bill will be 4 dollars lower on the fixed part of the bill.

But keep in mind the variable part will be a bigger percentage meaning if you don’t conserve water your bill will actually be higher.

The total invoice would be about 79 dollars a month and that represents a 1.2 per cent decrease. But if you use a lot of water your bill will actually be higher by about 2 per cent because the variable rate will be higher.

The industrial/commercials sector will see a higher bill.

Councillor Derek Shogren says they know that was coming.

Meantime, the city does have a low flow toilet replacement rebate program in effect and two toilets now apply up from one.