Curbside Conversion Discussed

Robert Thomas

Curbside garbage removal is back on the agenda

The question about curbside garbage collection was briefly mentioned at Council’s Executive Committee on Monday, January 22nd.

Following the presentation of the Environmental Advisory Committee’s meeting report, Councillor Dawn Luhning inquired about the Committee’s involvement on the issue. Luhning asked if the “Environmental Advisory Committee has done an in-depth or minimal conversation about the curbside transition.”

Councillor Chris Warren replied “I don’t think we had any input…the general discussion of the Environmental Advisory Committee is to reduce waste.”

Director of Engineering Josh Mickleborough interjected, claiming the issue was “definitely discussed at environmental committee” and the committee was “supportive of the initiative.”

The issue of curbside garbage collection was a hot political topic in 2017, as numerous citizens opposed the initiative approved in the 2017 budget. Numerous council meetings were seemingly devoted to the issue, as Council finally backtracked following a public outcry. What were then zones one and two had already been converted, but Council decided to stop the conversion for zones three, four and five. Since that time the City has changed zone numbers for garbage collection from five to nine zones.

Completing the transition to curbside collection for the entire city was once again introduced in the January 13th Budget Committee meetings. Where it generated lively discussion.