7,200 Torontonians didn't get utility bills. Now, they have to pay up

For the last year, Jeff Wang and his family have been using all the water they needed and getting their garbage picked up, but were inadvertently not paying for either. 

That's because Wang says the city didn't send him his last two utility bills. Utility bills are issued three times a year and because he's on an automatic payment system, Wang didn't notice he wasn't getting billed until he was doing his taxes in March.  

"I logged on to the city website for my account and it said I owed them zero dollars," Wang said. "But I was clearly using water and getting my garbage collected."

He emailed the city in March to alert them but didn't receive a response until June — three months later. 

"There's always going to be bureaucracy, but what I am slightly surprised by is the fact that when it actually involves collecting money, there is this much inefficiency," Wang said, noting the city's budget shortfall. 

It turns out Wang is one of 7,200 people whose water meter transmission units have broken, which means their water usage hasn't been reported to the city for billing. How long the metres have been broken, the city says it doesn't know exactly. 

Now, the city is working on a plan to replace all the transmitters across Toronto — at least 465,000 — just nine to 14 years after they were installed. Meanwhile, residents whose meters haven't been transmitting their usage are having to pay large catch-up bills for the missed payments.

For Wang, that meant a bill of $1,400.

"It was a bit of a sticker shock to see it," he said. "Fortunately, I had enough cash to pay it. But, in this current economy and with inflation and everyone's struggling, I can totally imagine someone not having that in their budget."

The city says although water and garbage collection charges are managed separately, they are on the same utility bill, and so some customers were also not billed for garbage pickup.

Between 2010 and 2015, the city rolled out its automated water meter reading program, which saw new meters installed in every home and business in Toronto that send water usage directly to the city for billing. At the time, it estimated it would be replacing 465,000 meters.

The new meters eliminated the need for city staff to enter people's homes to obtain a reading. But with the transmitters broken, those readings weren't being sent to the city. 

The city won't say how much money it has to recoup from missed billing. But if, like Wang, 7,200 residents weren't charged the average water bill of $1,040 annually for 10 months, the city likely has to collect more than $6 million. That figure doesn't account for recouping garbage collection.

The City of Toronto's chief communications officer, Beth Waldman, says the city is committed to working with affected residents to "address their concerns and ensure fair and flexible treatment throughout this process."