New water meters aren't the only new features in terms of utilities for the City of Portage la Prairie. Councillor Brent Budz explains e-billing is a service the city is now offering to residents.

"There has been quite a bit of talk about the new water meters. That process has gone very well and is on on the projected time slot to be completed. We also moved to e-billing for our utilities. E-billing is available to residents, they do have to sign up and they can receive their bills by email in a PDF version rather than by mail. I know that is a very popular thing with lots of other utility bills and phone bills so we wanted to extend that service."

He explains how people can sign up for the service.

"You do have to call city hall at the clerk with your name, address and utility service number and the email address you would like the e-bill sent to and then we can set that up for residents."

Budz notes this new option for billing is a great option for the people of Portage.

"Obviously it's going to reduce paper. We look at the environmentally sensitivity of a lot of areas. We do produce a lot of paper at the city and I know a lot of residents like to reduce the paper that comes through their homes. It's just another good option if they'd like to electronically recieve their bill."