The city won't be providing loans to homeowners who are facing a decision on whether or not to replace the lead pipe providing them with water service - but councillors, public health officials and city water staff could be coming to their neighbourhood to explain why the $1,500-$2,000 investment might be a good one.
That was the word this week from Toronto's public works and infrastructure committee, as they considered ways to encourage more Toronto homeowners to get the lead out of their water.Currently, about 65,000 households are serviced by lead pipes. Since 2007, the city has been embarking on a plan to replace lead pipes delivering water on city property, to deal with adverse health effects lead contamination can have on the development of young children.But unless homeowners also deal with the connection on their own property, the wholesale replacement is for naught.And that can be expensive work, costing between $1,500 and $2,000. Last year, Toronto Council asked for a report on the pros and cons of offering interest free loans to homeowners.On Tuesday, city staff told councillors that on balance, the loans would be a bad idea. They would be hard to collect on, because unlike property taxes and water bills, they wouldn't function as a lien against the property. The city would lose out on interest itself from the loans, and it might also create a precedent for providing loans for health hazards within the house, such as knob and tube wiring, asbestos insulation or toxic drywall.Some councillors were uneasy with the demands."We have to provide some incentive, because the issue is that a lot of residents can't afford the work," said York South-Weston Councillor Frances Nunziata. "To me it would make sense if we were doing the work to use the same contractor on the private portion - that would be more cost effective. I don't know what the solution is but I would like to see some sort of plan in place where we could assist."Beaches-East York Councillor Janet Davis said the city should at least gather information on how many people are replacing their lead pipes."If it turns out only 20 per cent are being replaced then all of this is for naught," she said. "The fact is that for a certain portion of the city lead is a health risk. We should do what we can to find out why residents aren't doing it, and if it's the cost then we need to look at ways that we can provide an incentive through a loan program."Other councillors pointed out that for a vital repair such as this, homeowners should be able to cover the cost themselves.Don Valley East Councillor Shelley Carroll said the city needs to move along with the lead replacement as quickly as possible."There are legions of homeowners out there who can afford to do this work," she said. "Nobody wants to give out loans to risky businesses - but banks do make loans. They do have to send out a home line of credit here and there, so we need to tell homeowners to call the bank to say you need to extend me a home line of credit. It's not unreasonable, and if we give people notice they've got four months to do it."The committee did finally pass a motion saying that expert staff would be available to attend meetings, impressing upon homeowners how important it was to get the work done.