The City of Castlegar has recently added electronic utility billing to the services available through their online services.
Utility and property tax accounts can be linked online, so you can see your utility bill, water consumption, property tax information, assessed property value and transaction history all in one place and receive your bills by email.
So far about 200 households have signed up for the utility program and 730 have claimed their 2017 home owner grants online.
The program does not include online payments, you still need to pay your bill at your personal financial institution or at City Hall. The city had previously done a study about accepting credit card payments and found that the amount they would have to pay in credit card fees was substantial. Depending on utilization levels, estimates of fees are between $35,000 and $90,000 per year.
The Canadian Federation of Independent Business released a report last year detailing how credit card transaction fees are on the rise for municipal governments. All of the cities listed in the report are much larger than Castlegar, but show how the costs can add up and that over the five year span of 2010-2015 costs increased by 33 to 122 percent for the cities in the report. The City of Vancouver topped the list with $2 million in fees for 2015. Prince George paid $97,834 in 2015.
To sign up for e-billing, go to castlegar.ca, click on the Utility E-billing link and follow the instructions provided. You will need to know your 13-digit utility account number, which can be located on the top left of your utility bill, and your access code/PIN which can be found on the right side, at about in the middle of your bill. The most recent bills went out in the past two weeks.