A delay with the Portage la Prairie's water bills north of the railroad tracks has led to some concerns and numerous calls to city hall. The bills were delayed after about 4,500 water meters were exchanged for new units earlier this year, and the city had to combine previous readings with new readings to create the latest bills for that portion of the city. Residents received their bills in the mail earlier this week, with many noticing their bills were a higher than normal. Waterworks Chair Wayne Wall says the delay itself may have been part of the reason for the higher water charges.

"Now you're getting a water bill that's for four months, instead of for three months. Some people aren't taking note of the dates and period for when the reading is, so they're kind of shocked at the amount of the water bill. Within the next months, we hope to get everything on schedule and be sending out three-month bills instead of four-month bills."

However, the delays aren't the only factor at play. Wall says older meters tend to wear out, providing incorrect readings in the homeowner's favour. He says with the installation of new meters, more accurate readings could simply mean you were supposed to be paying more for water all along. However, he admits it could also be an issue on the city's end. When the meters were changed over, the city had to manually input the reading from the old meter, and then once again manually input the date from the new meter. He says it's possible mistakes were made, and it's something they're taking an in-depth look at.

"We're starting to go through all these numbers, one meter at a time, the new meter reading and the old meter reading, and making sure all of our calculations are correct. We currently have 47 pages of fine print to enter manually. That's taking some time, and we're actually going to be bringing in some extra help to assist with that."

Wall says city hall has been receiving numerous phone calls from those concerned about their bills. He's asking the public to be patient, noting while they're working to return calls as soon as possible, there's currently a four-day backlog. He notes the city apologizes for the inconvenience and says if you were charged too much on this bill, your next bill will be lower.