Garbage Fees Rising Substantially
Robert Thomas
After the defeat of expanding curbside collection, reverting to back alley collection and operating weekly during the Summer months, the final bill has been tallied. And it all adds up to a few more bucks monthly for garbage collection.
Initially slated to increase from $6.75 per month in 2017 to $7.25 per month in 2018, the newly recommended proposed fee for garbage collection and disposal is now $9.77 per month.
With the increase of over 30 percent it had Council asking questions as to why the increase was so high.
Councillor Dawn Luhning asked why this is the highest fee seen so far. Moose Jaw's Director of Engineering, Josh Mickleborough stated reverting back to back lane pickup was the most expensive option.
“The pre-existing service would be the highest cost. The savings wouldn’t be as much if you went to bi-weekly for the whole year,” Mickleborough stated.
The cost reduction of the service initially estimated at $490,000 will be reduced to $114,000 largely because of partial bi-weekly collection. The saving is based upon an approximated even split between reduced tonnage and labour reduction because of eight months of bi-weekly collection a report to Council stated.
Asked by Councillor Don Mitchell what amount of the fee increase was attributable to going weekly, from June to September, Mickleborough stated about a dollar.
Councillor Chris Warren asked how the rate was achieved.
“There is a $337,000 saving from bi-weekly, the report today only $118,000…I thought the savings would be two thirds of the original amount,” Warren stated.
Mickleborough replied that the difference is the personnel and equipment costs. With bi-weekly, the entire fleet did not have to be mobilized. Additionally, the provincial regulator audited the landfill in December 2017 and discovered the City was not covering the dumping areas as much as required.
“We didn’t want to have that finding anymore than anyone else did,” he stated about the audit results.
At the time, the City was given a six month permit to operate. They now have a permit to operate the present landfill for three more years.
Coun Mitchell said he was told those who were physically unable to move their garbage containers would now lose the service of having the City move the bins for them.
“That’s not the case. We want the system maintained,” Mickleborough stated.
“I’ve been contacted by individuals who have disabilities which restrict them in the ability to recover the bins,” Coun Mitchell stated.
Mickleborough stated that a letter from the individual’s doctor saying they were unable to move the bins was sufficient for the City to move the bins for them.
Coun Mitchell asked about bins being tagged by the Engineering Department telling residents to wheel them back in their yards, given the bylaw has not been approved yet.
“Tagging is taking place, given the direction we got from Council. Our intent would be to get them to comply with that,” Mickleborough stated.
Council was told the earliest the bylaw could be enacted was May 28th.
Asked by Coun Mitchell about whether or not it was sufficient for people to alter their fence to accommodate the garbage bin and not roll it right inside their fenced yards, Mickleborough said it would be sufficient.
As part of the proposed bylaw, residents will be required to roll their bins back into their yards by midnight of collection day. The report mentions there may be additional costs to enforce the bylaw and property line problems doing so.
The report stating that the loss of bi-weekly collection in the Summer months will result in a reduction of maintenance in the Waterworks Utility, as the freed up resources were to be deployed there, had Coun Warren asking more questions.
“In terms of funding (preventative maintenance) none of these resources have been changed…are there enough current resources or do we hire additional Summer staff?” Warren asked.
“We will continue to endeavour to undertake these programs. We will attempt to achieve them,” Mickleborough replied.
Councillor Brian Swanson questioned the overall efficiencies and costs of the automated system compared to the former manual collection system.
“The simplest system we had was the least expensive,” Coun Swanson stated, adding all available monies should be going to the water system and roads.
“We’re into about month 17 of what I call Garbagegate and the costs keep going up,”Coun Swanson stated.
“The most efficient system we had was a person picking up your garbage and putting it into the truck,” he would state later in the debate.
Councillor Crystal Froese said there was a major disconnect in the community, with people seeing the monthly fee for collection only when in fact it was collection as well as disposal of the waste itself.
“The disposal charge is the single biggest part of the charge…the bottom line is what you see here is the cost to collect it and get rid of it and previously it (disposal) was not part of the cost,” Coun Froese stated.
The challenged collection area guidelines will be adopted with the reversion back to the previous collection plan. It’s unknown at this time how many back lanes would fall under this challenged criteria.
Also stated in the report: since garbage collection reverted to its original pre-July 1, 2017 status on May 1, 2018 the time to develop a new bylaw will mean a deficit estimated at $75,000 for 2018. Solid waste collection is a utility operated on a cost recovery basis.
In the end, the motion to approve the new garbage fee and to draft up the bylaw passed 5 – 2 with Coun Swanson and Luhning opposed.