Editor:
It’s time to clear up some ‘misunderstandings’ about what we are doing in council.
Here are the facts regarding some statements in a letter to the editor in the March 9 edition.
The previous council spent $60,000 on a report about solid waste collection, which is a common practice for all governments when making significant decisions with taxpayers’ money.
In Surrey, solid waste collection is only provided for eligible townhouses, not for condos and apartments. Currently, White Rock offers solid waste collection for single-family homes and multi-family properties with up to six strata units, and we are currently exploring the feasibility of expanding this to 10 units.
A bit of background, in 2015, Metro Vancouver implemented a ban on organics in the garbage waste stream, leading to the creation of a new third waste stream for multi-family and commercial solid waste collection in White Rock.
This, coupled with the need for special collection provisions for new and large multi-family buildings, created inefficiencies in the city’s solid waste collection system.
To address these challenges, the city made significant changes to the solid waste collection process. Multi-family and commercial solid waste collection, except for buildings with six units or less, was privatized. Residential properties continued to be collected by city crews, but prior to 2015 solid waste collection in White Rock was paid by taxation (not free) and then a ‘user pay’ utility was set up where the residential properties pay into the solid waste utility.
The bottom line is the report noted that the costs to take back recycling was estimated to cost the end user more than what they are currently paying.
Feel free to email us or follow us on social media for the truth.
Michele Partridge & Elaine Cheung, White Rock City Councillors