Victoria councillors have once again decided to stick with backyard pickup of garbage and kitchen scraps.
Mayor Dean Fortin, back from a trip to Russia and Japan, broke a 4-4 council tie, meaning residents will pay $20 more per household for garbage pickup next year but retain the same level of service.
It also represents a win for CUPE Local 50 which, if the service is ratified by council, will likely see three contract positions turned into full time to maintain the service.
Faced with $225,000 in higher-than-anticipated costs since moving to a new collection system in February, city staff recommended Victoria raise garbage fees by $6 in 2014 and follow the lead of other municipalities by having residents wheel their garbage and kitchen scraps bins to the curb.
During a committee meeting two weeks ago, council decided in a 5-4 vote to retain backyard pickup at an extra cost of $20 per household next year. But at a council meeting last week —when Fortin out of town — the matter was deadlocked at 4-4. Council kicked the issue back to committee for more discussion and another vote.
Joining Fortin Thursday voting in favour of retaining the existing system were councillors Shellie Gudgeon, Ben Isitt, Marianne Alto and Pam Madoff. Councillors Lisa Helps, Charlayne Thornton-Joe, Geoff Young and Chris Coleman were against.
Fortin acknowledged that when the city polled residents in 2011, the largest number — 48 per cent — opted for curbside pickup. But, he said, a general citizen survey found 91 per cent of citizens were satisfied or very satisfied with the new system. When asked whether they preferred service cuts or increased taxes, 60 per cent chose tax increases. “So that is where I’m voting, recognizing that the input from our citizens has changed,” Fortin said.
The $20 increase, equivalent to a property tax increase of about one per cent on the average single-family home, raises annual rates to $183 for an 80-litre bin, $203 for a 120-litre bin and $224 for a 180-litre bin.
Helps said the more recent citizen survey represented a random broad sampling of views and was perhaps not as telling as the survey specifically on garbage. She also noted the annual Vitals Signs report says the No. 1 concern for residents in this region is the cost of living.
Further, she said, a staff report detailing procedures for closed gates shows that only 40 per cent of bins are being picked up in backyards. Thirty per cent are in the side yard; 29 per cent in the front yard and one per cent at the curb.
“So it’s a misnomer that we’re doing backyard pickup. Sixty per cent of the bins are not picked up from the backyard. So we’re not moving from backyard pickup to curbside. We’re moving from a hybrid of pickups to curbside,” Helps said. “I think it’s more clear for our workers who do the good work, more clear for residents, more clear for everybody.”
While several councillors were loath to characterize the service-delivery debate as a labour/management issue, most endorsed a motion put forward by Helps confirming garbage and food scrap collection as a public service to be provided to residents by City of Victoria workers. Only Young and Gudgeon voted against.
Helps acknowledged that the motion was almost symbolic. “But I think there is an unnecessary heightened amount of fear in certain places in the organization that the move toward discussions of garbage or move toward anything else are moves toward privatization.”
Young said supporting the motion would only reinforce the idea in some people’s minds that the issue was about union relations, not service delivery.
Gudgeon said she found it disturbing that union/management relations had entered the debate.
“This was not a union decision that I made [for backyard pickup]. This would be no matter who was doing the service.”
