Every year the Town of Golden sets utility rates at the lowest amount possible to deliver current services, while still providing enough funding to maintain, upgrade and repair infrastructure.
Here are the services that your utility bill pays for:
Water Services rates and service charges support:
- Four groundwater wells with a combined total design pumping capacity of 76 litres per second.
- Five reservoirs with a total storage capacity of about 6.96 Mega Litres.
- Maintenance of approximately 39 kilometres of water pipes.
- Ongoing work to protect our water with a robust groundwater protection program.
- Operations crew ready to respond to address service interruptions.
- An Integrated Water Strategy for the community water supply and distribution system, begun in 2024, will be completed in early 2025.
- A fifth well was drilled at Dogwood Park in fall 2023. Work will continue in 2025 and possibly in 2026 with aquifer testing, licensing and construction of a well building.
Sewer Services rates and service charges support:
- A collection system that has the capacity to process 4251 cubic metres per day of effluent.
- Maintenance of approximately 36 kilometres of sewer lines.
- Seven lift stations and one sewage treatment plant.
- Operations crew ready to respond to address service interruptions.
- Planning work for the installation of a sanitary trunk main on the north bench will continue in 2025.
- A sewage treatment plant Capacity Feasibility Study, begun in 2024, will be completed in early 2025.
Utility fees collected also play an important role in leveraging higher-level government funding for larger asset renewal initiatives, for example:
In 2025, work will continue on the Integrated Sanitary Sewer Upgrades project. In 2024, under this project, planned renewals at the sewage treatment plant were completed and sanitary mains in various locations in the community were slip-lined. More slip-lining is planned for 2025. All of this work is funded through a $1,085,651 grant from the Investing in Canada Infrastructure Program.
Other projects completed in 2024 include the replacement of the Edelweiss sanitary lift station, a Master Sanitary Plan Update for the community sewer collection system, and a multi-year program of remote water and sewer system communications/control equipment modernizing.
Garbage and Recycling Services:
- Garbage and Recycling Services:
- Garbage and recycling is collected from over 1500 households in Golden.
- Garbage (bear-resistant black bins) is collected every week and recycling (blue bins) every two weeks.
- Management of curbside collection for single-family residential recycling under the Recycle BC program.
- For garbage and recycling tips, visit golden.ca/curbsidecollection or visit recyclebc.ca/what-can-i-recycle/ to learn more about what you can recycle.
In 2025, the Town of Golden adopted a new Waste Management and Collection Services Bylaw. This bylaw sets out the service and fees for providing waste and recycling collection services in Golden for 2025-2027. To establish rates, the Town takes into consideration contract costs for curbside collection, landfill tipping fees, RecycleBC credits, and reserve contributions for bin replacements and additions for community growth.
Utility bills arrive every year in February in the mail. Payment is due March 31, 2025. If you do not receive one, please contact the Town offices at 250-344-2271 or email utilities@golden.ca.