White Rock council has put the brakes on contracting out solid-waste collection for single-family homes, despite city staff recommendations that elected officials endorse the change earlier this week.
A staff report presented at Monday’s council meeting outlined a proposal for a seven-year contract for Emterra Environment to take over collection of solid waste for 4,065 homes.
Director of municipal operations Greg St. Louis highlighted the advantages of contracting the service out, including $94,000 in savings each year plus reduced WorkSafe premiums for the city in the long term.
Among disadvantages, St. Louis noted the elimination of four full-time staff positions, currently filled by casual employees.
Prior to St. Louis’ report, a group of East Beach residents spoke as a delegation in favour of the proposal, citing a five-year problem with odour, vermin and health concerns from the transferring of organic waste to the city’s Keil Street operations yard.
“We urge you to adopt this recommendation,” resident Diane Bradley said, noting she had collected more than 100 signatures from a four-block radius in her neighbourhood.
Council members, however, expressed concerns with the proposal.
Coun. Lynne Sinclair tabled a motion – carried unanimously – for staff to provide a more detailed report on mechanical solid-waste options (the proposed contract would maintain manual collection) and put together a plan for a public-consultation process regarding the proposed change.
“If there was anything I heard during the condo solid waste, it was that we didn’t consult and reach out enough,” Sinclair said.
In December 2014, council voted in a closed meeting to eliminate solid-waste collection for multifamily and commercial buildings, leaving stratas and businesses responsible for arranging contracts with private haulers. As information was made public in the months that followed, the city faced backlash from residents and business owners over the change, which took effect July 1, 2015.
City manager Dan Bottrill told Peace Arch News Wednesday that the current proposal was brought forward in open council because it didn’t involve an elimination of services, rather a change in who provides it.
“It’s a potential change in service delivery, whereas (in 2014), we were talking about privatization of a service,” Bottrill said.
Sinclair told PAN the current proposal “is a big decision,” and that council needs to take its time to seek out answers and gauge the community’s opinion, admitting that was not what took place with the multifamily and commercial changes.
“I personally regret that there wasn’t public consultation that I think should have happened,” Sinclair said. “I think that’s an important part of making a major decision.”
At Monday’s meeting, Bottrill told council he was “not sure what we’re going to accomplish with a forum.”
“There is actually no change to what a single-family owner is required to do, which is different from what we were asking commercial and multifamily,” Bottrill said. “The same individual is going to be bringing out the same garbage can to the end of the driveway, it’s just going to be another truck picking it up.”
Sinclair also expressed concern that once the city’s seven-year contract with Emterra – which would cost $693,000 a year – ended, the city would be without a fleet of trucks and staff, would be forced to recover whatever WorkSafe premiums were incurred and would be “at the behest” of whatever providers are available.
“That’s my one hesitation with this… we’re still going to be absorbing those costs seven years from now and we won’t have any negotiating power at all,” Sinclair said, noting mechanical service would reduce the risk of injury on the part of the collectors.
Bottrill told PAN that Emterra has a good WorkSafe rating – unlike the City of White Rock, which currently has a “poor-experience rating” – and when the seven-year contract is up, the city would again issue a request for proposals.
“There would be no opportunity should Emterra be paying extra premiums that it would be recovered by the city,” Bottrill said.
Outlined in the report was a shift of $145,000 from the solid-waste utility budget to the general tax levy, which would result in a $58 decrease in the solid-waste user fee for single-family homes.
Coun. Megan Knight sought clarification regarding the tax increase – at a rate of 0.8 per cent – as a result of the shift, and was told by staff the user fee decrease applied only to single-family homes, whereas the tax increase applied to all property owners.
“I would like to see staff come up with a more equitable solution,” Knight said. “If they’re not getting the benefit of it, and they’re getting dinged more on the general (tax levy), I don’t think that’s very fair to the strata owners.”
Bottrill said the funds that were being reallocated to general tax represented wages of staff and management who would then be freed up to work on other projects.
Staff is expected to follow up with an additional report to council May 9.