I think the community needs to take stock of itself, in terms of its resources and its community aspirations and where it is, and articulate a vision from there. That is the core of the issue.
To your first question, if I may, there are many bylaws in Okotoks with respect to these initiatives, particularly around waste management and limitations on material at curbsides and on water management. We have a very aggressive utility rate structure. Typically, municipalities have about a fifty-fifty division in their utility rate structure, between a 50% flat rate and 50% variable rate. Our community has moved to seventy-thirty split. So 70% of your water bill is based on consumption and 30% is based on the flat rate—the bottom line a municipality needs to ensure there are services to that home, whether there is someone living in it or not.
We have also tied in our sewage utilities relative to water consumption. When we did that, there initially was a hue and cry from the community during the irrigation season—and in sunny southern Alberta, we have quite an irrigation season—because the water they were consuming was not being returned to the sewage treatment system. We've addressed that through generating water consumption in non-irrigation as the basis for sewer charges during the irrigation season. We have very aggressive outdoor watering requirements in place.
We also have mandated or required that low-flow plumbing fixtures be used throughout. And we've negotiated with our developers for density bonuses, whereby they have to do things such as pre-scarify the sub-soil; use a minimum of eight inches of top soil for landscaping purposes and use special landscaping strategies, especially around outdoor facilities; and use low-flow plumbing fixtures, front-load washing machines, etc.
There is one more thing. When we did this initially, there was a big pushback from the building industry, in particular, especially around technology issues for low-flow toilets. Indeed, technology has caught up with respect to these issues. There are no longer these kinds of issues, and it's become the expectation.