Your Water and Sewer Bill in Fredericton, Explained

Who provides your water and sewer

Inside the city limits, water and sewer are both run by the City of Fredericton Water & Sewer Utility. It is a single City department that does two big jobs: pumping clean, tested drinking water to your taps, and collecting and treating the wastewater that leaves your house. You do not deal with a separate private water company the way you do for power or internet.

Because it is one utility, you get one combined bill that covers both the water coming in and the sewer going out. There is no separate sewer company to call. The utility is funded almost entirely by what customers pay, so the rates are set to cover the cost of running the treatment plants, pipes, hydrants and crews, plus long-term repairs to the underground network.

If you are new to the area, our moving to Fredericton hub walks through the other accounts you will set up at the same time.

How metered quarterly billing is calculated

Fredericton bills water and sewer on a meter, not a flat monthly fee. Every serviced property has a water meter that records how many cubic metres of water pass through it. One cubic metre is 1,000 litres. The City reads the meter and sends a bill every three months (quarterly), so you get four bills a year rather than a monthly one.

Your bill is built from two pieces added together:

• A quarterly service charge — a fixed amount every customer pays each quarter, no matter how little water you use. It covers being connected to the system.
• A commodity charge — a per-cubic-metre rate multiplied by the volume of water your meter recorded that quarter. This is the part that goes up when you use more.

As a rough guide, the City's schedule effective April 1, 2026 set the quarterly service charge at about $77.50 and the commodity charge at about $1.04 per cubic metre, following a roughly 5% overall increase in the 2026 budget. Sewer service is folded into these same charges rather than billed separately. Rates are reviewed and usually adjusted each year, so treat those figures as a snapshot and confirm the current rates with the City before you do your own math.

How to read your bill

Once you know it is service charge plus metered usage, the bill is easy to decode. Look for these lines:

• Account or location number — a six-digit number that starts with 7. You need this to pay online or by phone banking, and to set up automatic payments.
• Previous and current meter readings — the two numbers the City subtracts to figure out how much water you used. The difference is your consumption in cubic metres for the quarter.
• Service charge — the fixed quarterly amount.
• Commodity / consumption charge — your cubic metres multiplied by the per-cubic-metre rate.
• Due date — pay by this date to avoid interest or penalties.

If the current reading looks wildly higher than usual and nothing changed in your household, that can be a sign of a running toilet or a hidden leak. Compare the consumption figure across a few quarters — a big unexplained jump is worth investigating before you just pay it.

Roughly what households pay

The City describes a typical household as paying in the neighbourhood of a few dollars a day for both clean drinking water and wastewater treatment — the City's own communications have put it at roughly $2.80 per day for an average home. Over a three-month quarter that works out to a couple hundred dollars per bill for a typical family, with the exact amount driven by how much water you actually use.

Your bill will be higher than average if you have a big household, water a lawn or garden in summer, fill a pool, or have a slow leak you have not noticed. It will be lower if you are a one- or two-person household with efficient fixtures. Because it is metered, your usage is the biggest lever — two identical houses on the same street can have very different bills.

These are ballpark figures to help you budget, not a quote. For an exact estimate, take your household's metered cubic metres from a recent bill and multiply by the City's current commodity rate, then add the quarterly service charge.

Setting up or transferring service when you move

Water and sewer follow the property, but the account needs to be in your name. When you move within Fredericton or into the city, contact Service Fredericton to open the account at your new address and close or transfer the one at your old address, so you are not billed for water used after you leave.

• Phone: call Service Fredericton at (506) 460-2020.
• In person: the Service Centre at 397 Queen Street, weekdays.
• Online: the City's online Service Centre handles water tasks and connection requests.
• Email: [email protected].

Do this around your closing or move-in date so the final meter reading lands on the right person. If you are buying or building and the property needs a brand-new connection (rather than an existing one), that is a separate service-installation process handled through the utility, and it is worth starting early. See our services hub for the other move-day setups to line up at the same time.

Payment options

The City gives you several ways to pay your quarterly water and sewer bill. Pick whatever fits how you handle bills:

• Pre-authorized payment — the City withdraws the amount from your bank account automatically on the due date, so you never miss it. You fill out a short application online, at the Service Centre, or by phone.
• Telephone or internet banking — add "Water Fredericton" as a payee with your bank and use your six-digit location number (the one starting with 7) as the account number.
• Online by credit card — pay through Service New Brunswick with Visa or Mastercard. Allow a few days before the due date for it to process.
• In person — at the Service Centre on Queen Street with cash, debit, credit, cheque or money order.
• Other locations — the City has also listed certain bank branches and a Marysville pharmacy as payment spots.

Conservation tips to lower your bill

Because you are billed by the cubic metre, using less water directly lowers the commodity part of your bill. The service charge is fixed, but everything above it is in your control. The highest-impact moves:

• Fix running toilets and dripping taps fast. A silently running toilet can waste hundreds of litres a day — it is the single most common cause of a surprise high bill.
• Check for leaks with the meter test. Turn off all water in the house and watch the meter; if it keeps moving, water is escaping somewhere.
• Install low-flow fixtures. Efficient showerheads, faucet aerators and modern toilets cut usage without much lifestyle change.
• Rethink the lawn and garden. Summer watering is a major driver of high third-quarter bills. Water deeply but less often, early or late in the day, and use a rain barrel where you can.
• Run full loads. Only run dishwashers and washing machines when they are full.

Track your consumption in cubic metres quarter over quarter — seeing the number drop is the clearest proof your changes are working.

The well-and-septic reality on the rural edges

Not everyone in the greater Fredericton area is on City water. Many homes on the rural edges and in the surrounding commuter communities — the places people drive in from — are on a private well and septic system instead. If that is you, there is no City water and sewer bill, but the responsibility shifts onto you.

With a well, you own the water quality. The Government of New Brunswick recommends that private well owners test their water regularly — typically for bacteria a couple of times a year and for broader chemistry and metals (like arsenic, manganese and uranium, which occur naturally in parts of the province) less often. You pay for testing and for any treatment equipment, plus pump and pressure-tank upkeep.

With a septic system, your wastewater is treated on your own property in a tank and drainage field. That means periodic pumping (commonly every few years), being careful about what goes down the drain, and eventual replacement costs down the road. There is no monthly bill, but budget for maintenance so a neglected system does not become an expensive emergency.

When shopping for a home outside the city, always confirm whether it is on municipal service or well and septic — it changes both your monthly costs and your responsibilities. Our guides hub has more on settling in around Fredericton.