Council votes against re-establishment of solid waste collection
November 14, 2012 at 2:49 PM
On November 14, City Council voted against the re-establishment of solid waste collection services within the City of Winnipeg. Council also rejected a recommendation to examine how other cities benchmark the performance of contracted waste collection services.
"While we are disappointed that City Council has rejected the idea of bringing solid waste collection services back in-house, we simply cannot understand why they are not willing to look at how other cities handle garbage and recycling services," said Local 500 President Mike Davidson.
In July 2005, City Council approved a recommendation to contract out both manual and autobin collection services in the City of Winnipeg. At that time, city and elected officials claimed that contracting out this service would result in lower costs to the citizens of Winnipeg. Further, on October 19, 2011, City Council adopted a new garbage and recycling master plan. This plan resulted in the removal of the Autobin system and implementation of a contracted city-wide automated cart collection system of garbage and recyclables effective October 1, 2012.
In its presentation to City Council, the Union challenged the notion that the City has saved money through contracting out of solid waste collection services.
"We have asked time and time again, that the City conduct an external audit to identify what, if any, cost savings have been achieved," said Davidson. "The citizens of Winnipeg have a right to know if contracting out this service has actually saved them money."
The motion before City Council which was to accept as information the idea to explore re-establishing solid waste, was voted 10-5 in favour. Accepting as Information basically means directing the city not to move forward and study the idea of re-establishing in-house solid waste collection.
Voting against accepting the motion as information were: Councillors Eadie, Gerbasi, Mayes, Smith and Orlikow.
Voting in favour of accepting the motion as information were: Mayor Katz, Councillors Fielding, Browaty, Nordman, Havisbeck, Pagtakhan, Vandal, Sharma, Swandel and Steen.
You can click here to read a copy of the Local's presentation.
