THE METERING OF WATER USE makes perfectly good sense from two points of view, even if some consumers might feel unfairly treated in the beginning.

First off, we are living in an era of “user pay.” We have come to expect always to pay our fair share for everything we consume no matter whether in goods or in services.

In municipal services, let’s not forget the uproar when Shelburne, and then Orangeville, reduced the “free” garbage disposal limit to a single bag and imposed a charge for each additional bag.

This encouraged residents to make greater use of the blue and green boxes and, in any event, generally reduced the needs of most residents to a single bag each week.

Secondly, as demonstrated by the garbage example, imposing a specific charge for a service is likely to lead to a reduced use of the service wherever possible. In the case of water, the usage reduction amounts to conservation of a precious resource.

Nonetheless, any apparently new charge is a hard pill for many, if not most, people to swallow, especially in times of a difficult although improving economic downturn.

On that basis, we do understand the opposition of some Shelburne residents to the town’s new metering program.

What has to be kept in mind is that – no matter what revenue the town generates by metering – it has been collecting a similar, if not equal, amount all along through taxation. Metering individual usage does little more than adjust the burden.

Through metering, consumers can lighten their burden by using less.

And the town still has an option of softening the burden by continuing to cover part of its costs of the utility through general taxation. But that would partially defeat the “user pay” aspect.