We provide water, sewer, and solid waste services to our utility customers. Revenue generated from utility bills help pay for the cost of providing these services.
Water, sewer, solid waste
Solid waste services includes recycling, garbage collection, yard and kitchen waste collection, cardboard recycling, and the waste transfer site.
Non-urgent problem with your water, garbage or recycling?
- Report it online here, your message goes directly to Public Works staff
Sewer backups or water supply problems?
- Call 403 887 2800
Utility Billing concerns?
- Call 403 887 2141
Want to view your utility account details online?
- Visit My Sylvan Lake to create an account.
Want to get your utility bill by email? Email the utility department and include:
- Your Sylvan Lake address
- Phone number
- Let us know you want your utility bill by email
Renters and landlords
- Utility accounts are only set up in the registered home owners name
- Property owners: If you have a rental property, please ensure you sign up for ebilling; that way you can easily forward the bill onto your renter
- Renters: Ask your property owner for your bill by email
Contact us right away!
- Doing so ensures you're not paying for someone else's bill
- Contact us by email or call the Utility Billing Department, 403 887 2141, to get your utility bill set up
What should your new residence have?
- Recycling cart
- Garbage cart
- If they are missing, contact Public Works at 403 887 2800
Learn more
Contact us right away!
- Contacting us to cancel your utility billing services ensures you're not paying for someone else's bill
- Contact us by email or call the Utility Billing Department, 403 887 2141, to get your utility bill set up
- In person: debit, cash, cheque, or credit card (fees apply) at 5012 - 48 Avenue, Sylvan Lake
- In person at your bank: Make sure the bank enters all seven digits within your account number
- Online banking: Add us as a Payee online, through your financial institution
- You will find us under the Payee name "Town of Sylvan Lake" OR "Sylvan Lake, town of"
- Choose "utilities" and enter the full, seven digit account number found on your utility bill
- Don't enter the decimal point
- Allow sufficient time for your payment to reach our office by the due date on your bill
- Online with credit card: Credit card payments include third party fees
- Cheque by mail: Allow sufficient time for your payment to reach our office by the due date indicated on your bill. 5012 - 48 Avenue, Sylvan Lake, AB, T4S 1G6
- After hours cheque drop off: Leave your cheque and statement in our drop box on the west side of our building, at the bottom of the stairs. Do not leave cash in the drop box
- Pre-authorized payments: Signing up for pre-authorized payments.
- You will still receive a utility bill, so that you have time to review your bill and contact us if needed. The pre-authorized payment will be withdrawn on the utility bill due date
- You can also update your pre-auth banking information, or cancel your pre-auth debit
We offer programs throughout the year to reduce our community's environmental footprint:
No community can thrive without a reliable, future-proof water and sewer system.
- Where your water comes from and how to make sure we have enough water for the future
- Learn about your water, sewer, and storm water systems
- Learn how Your Utility Dollars keep water safe for Lakers
- Learn how the Water Sustainability Plan is working to protect your water supply
Struggling to make utility payments?
- Community Support Worker: 403 887 1137 Ext 425
- Emergency Financial Assistance for Utilities, Disconnections, Evictions: 1 866 644 5135
- Financial Support Assistance: 1 877 644 9992 or albertasupports.ca
If bills remain unpaid
- Water may be disconnected
- Unpaid amounts may be added to the property owner's tax account
Property owners may request to have the water turned off (or reconnected) at their property, under certain circumstances.
- Only titleholders of the property may apply to have the water disconnected or reconnected
- The titleholder may designate authority of the utility to another party
Learn more
- To schedule an appointment to discuss the water disconnection/reconnection process contact Public Works, 403 887 2800
Sylvan Lake utility costs (water and sewer), are self-funded, meaning utility fees are only used towards management, maintenance, and operation of utility-based infrastructure, and property taxes do not contribute towards utility costs. This means that increases to either property tax rates or utility rates do not affect the other. To cover any gaps between expenses and utility fees, the Town uses grant funding, borrowing, and development levies associated with water and sewer infrastructure for new or rehabilitated utility infrastructure.
Residential rates:
- Water monthly fixed charge: $43.49 per Dwelling Unit
- Sewer monthly fixed charge: $27.91 per Dwelling Unit
- Water consumption rate: $0.97 per m3
- Sewer collection rate: $3.09 per m3, as per water consumption
- Garbage base: $19.50
- Recycling base: $6.50
Commercial rates
- Water monthly fixed charge: $43.49 per Business Unit
- Sewer monthly fixed charge: $27.91 per Business Unit
- Water consumption rate: $0.97 per m3
- Sewer collection rate: $3.09 per m3
- Recycling base rate: $7.25
Why do utility bills increase?
- We outgrew our old wastewater lagoons, so now we pipe our wastewater to the Red Deer Treatment Plant
- Building a pipeline to the Red Deer treatment Plant is much cheaper than building our own plant
- We pay for the plant to treat our wastewater; the Town does not control these rates and they increased in 2023, 2024, and 2025
- Restoration of the old sewage treatment of lagoons
- Water, wastewater, and the stormwater systems all need regular maintenance, repairs, and upgrades. Parts for this increase in cost every year
- We must plan to have enough water in years to come and build to meet those needs
- The Federal Government started enforcing new regulations in 2015 that make it almost impossible for many communities to continue treating wastewater as they have in the past; discharging our wastewater from a lagoon system into into a creek was a very economical, but it is no longer an option for environmental reasons.
- Without major funding from the Province, the Town of Sylvan Lake is faced with impossibly costly capital upgrades on our own, and we would still likely face discharge issues. In order to access capital grants, we must agree to the Province's preferred solution of a regional system connection.
- Current Sylvan Lake water and wastewater infrastructure is over 35 years old and in need of repair and/or replacement. The Town has approximately 30 km of sewer line, and a similar 30 km of water line to replace. The cost associated with replacing each km of pipe, is approximately $500,000.
A significant impact that we want to make clear, is that the change to a regional system will result in higher user fees; fees will still include maintenance and operation of the collection system, but will also need to include transmission and treatment costs for the regional system - a system that the Town of Sylvan Lake does not, nor will control.
We also want to stress that Sylvan Lake's wastewater challenges, and the long-term solution, is not unique to only Sylvan Lake. Many other communities across Alberta, even neighbouring communities, are facing the same challenges, and the same difficult, but non-negotiable decisions to raise utility rates and connect to a regional system.
The Regional Wastewater System Connection project is a complicated one. We understand that these utility changes are hard to understand and likely even more difficult to accept. The Town - staff, and Council members, encourage residents to contact us with any questions and/or concerns they may have.
Did you know?
- In 1955, federal government owned 44% of public infrastructure. Today, provincial, territorial, and municipal governments own and maintain roughly 95% of Canada's public infrastructure. (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives - 2013, and Government of Canada, 2013)
- Municipalities own 52% of public infrastructure, but collect just 8 cents of every tax dollar (Federation of Canadian Municipalities - 2006)
- Municipalities are shouldering almost 50% of infrastructure costs, while having the smallest fiscal capacity of all three levels of government (Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives, CCPA - 2013)
Franchise Fees are payments made by utility companies for exclusive rights to utility distribution services within the municipality. Utility companies then charge their customers to cover the cost of these fees.
- Franchise fees are a source of revenue for the Town of Sylvan Lake
- As of January 1, 2023, the Town of Sylvan Lake's Fortis Electrical Franchise Fee is set at 18%
- As of January 1, 2023, the Town of Sylvan Lake's ATCO Gas Franchise Fee is set at 32%
Gas and Electricity
The Town does not provide electricity or gas services; however, several private retailers do. Visit ucahelps.alberta.ca to compare electricity and gas prices in your area, view historical rates, or get help resolving utility related issues.
Atco Gas is the natural gas distributor for the Town of Sylvan Lake, and Fortis Alberta is the electricity distributer for the Town of Sylvan Lake.
Contact distributors directly
- Fortis Alberta | T 310 WIRE (9473) | W Fortis Alberta
- Atco Gas | T 1 844 687 2826 | W Atco Gas
- Report a power outage here.
- Learn more about a power outage here.
- View and report outages using the Fortis Alberta mobile app
- Report burnt-out, or damaged streetlights to Fortis Alberta
- An online streetlight repair map makes reporting fast and easy
If you need assistance resolving an issue with your utility company, or have questions about your electricity and natural gas choices, the UCA can help.
- 310 4822 (In Alberta)
- 780 644 5130 (Outside Alberta)
- UCAhelps@gov.ab.ca
- Office of the Utilities Consumer Advocate