“We’ve gone through, we’ve cut as thin as we possibly could cut in this 10-year program but I’ll expand on that a little bit more,” Lewis told council. “If we cut capital program, we reduce our level of service. There’s no two ways about it, that is the effect. We will reduce our level of service; we’ll risk additional water main breaks; we’ll risk additional water loss. We don’t want another water main break like we had at Riverside Park. That’s a significant risk. We would increase the risk of boil water advisories.”

In a survey of water and wastewater bills, based on annual volumes of 220 cubic metres, Pembroke’s 2026 rates sees the city remain in the same ballpark as other local municipalities although it does vault ahead of Casselman and Deep River to land just behind Killaloe, Hagarty and Richards (KHR). Petawawa, Arnprior and Ottawa are already slightly lower than Pembroke. Pembroke’s 2027 rates see it jump over KHR and Renfrew landing just behind Mississippi Mills. More expensive municipalities than Pembroke include Laurentian Valley, and Kingston, and especially Whitewater Region and Clarence Rockland.