City equipment failure leaves Toronto senior with $2.4K water bill
City now apologizing to Iluminada Aguilar, as more than 50% of water meter transmitters have stopped working
A Toronto senior who was shocked to receive a nearly $2,400 water bill last month says she can't afford to pay it, and the City of Toronto was of little help despite previous public comments it would assist homeowners in her situation.
After contacting the city, Iluminada Aguilar, 76, learned her bill was so high because it was an adjusted catch-up bill due to a known equipment failure affecting thousands of Toronto homeowners.
Aguilar's water meter transmission unit (MTU) stopped working and so her home's water usage was being estimated based on historic use, but those amounts were too low, resulting in the large bill to make up the difference.
"It's not fair," Aguilar said. "I don't have the money to pay for it."
City staff have publicly promised payment plans would be available for customers who receive large catch-up bills and require flexibility to pay them. But that promise wasn't extended to Aguilar until after CBC Toronto contacted the city about her case.
Aguilar's fight with the city comes nearly a year after CBC first reported on MTUs failing prematurely. After that, the city revealed it would need to replace all 470,000 across Toronto.
As of April 2025, more than half of the MTUs have failed, according to a city staff report.
While water meters themselves continue to function properly, the failing transmitters mean water usage information is not being sent to the city, which has resulted in estimated bills or, in some cases, no bills at all.
The city says estimations are typically accurate but in cases when they aren't, some customers, like Aguilar, end up with bills to make up the difference.
'This is what I get?'
Aguilar has lived in her Parkdale home for more than 30 years. She lives off a pension and rents out her upstairs floor to help cover costs.
When she contacted the city last month, Aguilar learned her MTU stopped working in July 2022 and, because she's signed up for automatic payments, she'd been paying estimated bills that typically amounted to around $2,500 per year.
When a city technician came to her home in April to deal with an unrelated water issue, they also replaced the batteries in her transmitter, according to her tenant Adam Wynne, who has been helping her deal with the issue. A few weeks later, and just 39 days after her previous billing cycle, Aguilar got another bill for $2,392.89 — due in less than a month.
"For a senior on a fixed income, having a demand that they pay [close to] $2,500 with [limited] notice … is just absurd," Wynne said.
He and Aguilar contacted the city to get answers and payment flexibility, but they say the city was of little help.
"I've lived here for the longest time in my life and this is what I get?" Aguilar said.
City extends Aguilar's due date
After CBC contacted the City of Toronto about Aguilar's case, a spokesperson said in a statement that staff would reach out to Aguilar to apologize and establish a payment plan.
"We recognize the inconvenience and frustration this caused the resident and are taking immediate steps to correct the issue," said Russell Baker via email.
He said staff will also "review the city's processes to help prevent similar issues in the future."
The next day, a representative from revenue services called Aguilar. Wynne said the person offered an informal payment plan, in which the due date has been extended, but it's not entirely clear how long Aguilar has to pay the bill in full.
"We have more questions than answers at this point," Wynne said.
He also said it doesn't seem like the city has an actual mechanism in place for catch-up bills to be paid in installments, despite the city publicly touting payment plans.
Baker said the city is continuing to work with Aguilar to address the issue.
At an infrastructure and environment committee meeting last October, Lou Di Gironimo, general manager for Toronto Water, said a dedicated team was in place to manage a process allowing people to set up payment plans should they receive a catch-up bill.
"If there's some concerns about billing and looking at some payment plans or adjustments, the staff with revenue services will work with residents to manage that issue," he said.
It's not clear why more flexibility with the bill wasn't originally extended to Aguilar.
11,000 to 12,000 MTUs failing per month, city report
New water meters and transmitters were installed across the city between 2010 and 2015. The MTUs were supposed to have a lifespan of about 20 years, but their batteries have begun to fail around the 11 to 12 year mark.
MTUs are failing at a faster rate than previously, according to an April city report. Between 11,000 and 12,000 MTUs stop working each month, it says, compared to between 5,000 and 8,000 per month last fall.
"Currently, over 50 per cent (248,000) of the city's 470,000 MTUs have failed, and, due to operational challenges such as a backlog of replacement MTUs, the city has increased its reliance on estimated billing," the report says.
"Toronto Water's ability to replace MTUs is constrained by the availability of internal labour, MTUs, and field programming tools."
Last fall, the city approved $5.6 million in emergency spending to pay for the first wave of MTU replacements from the manufacturer, Aclara Technologies, as well as $3 million while staff work to create a long-term plan.
Calls for more transparency
The city's overall communication about the issue is concerning, Wynne said.
"It's rather opaque," he said. "You don't just add on two-and-a-half years of adjusted bill usage within one billing cycle."
The city did not answer CBC's questions about how much the total cost will be to replace the MTUs, how many have been replaced so far, or what the timeline is to complete the work.
The city should be more transparent, especially when it comes to an issue affecting so many people, says Gage Haubrich with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation.
"When the city's not being open about what its plans are for the future, that further erodes that trust," Haubrich said.
Baker, the city's spokesperson, said the city is working on a long-term strategy to address the issue, but the details remain confidential due to "ongoing negotiations."
"The city is expected to provide clear and timely updates to residents once negotiations are complete," Baker said.