City to mull taking over trash collection in trouble areas

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This article was published 24/11/2023 (685 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Winnipeg city councillors will consider whether municipal workers should take over a portion of garbage collection from private contractors in inner-city neighbourhoods plagued by arson and dumping.

On Friday, council’s water and waste committee unanimously approved a motion to have city staff provide garbage and recycling collection in a zone concentrated around downtown and the North End, roughly covering the Daniel McIntyre, Mynarski and Point Douglas wards, as well as the West Broadway neighbourhood. Currently, all garbage collection in those areas is contracted out.

All other areas would continue with private collection, if council casts a final vote to approve the change.

“I think it’s important to do this, to make sure we do have some competition between the public and private options … It does give you some control over cost. It also gives you some control if there are problems. If there’s a strike with one of the private contractors, you’ve got a city workforce in hand,” said Coun. Brian Mayes, the committee’s chairman, during the meeting.

A city staff report suggests switching to any amount of public garbage collection would cost the city more money, though it doesn’t estimate how much.

Mayes said he’s not convinced there would be a major price difference to switch to partial public collection, in part because the city should strive to ensure the staff employed by its contractors are paid a living wage.

“If we’re serious about a living wage for employees of our contractors, the purported savings of contracting out will get smaller and smaller,” he said.

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“If we’re serious about a living wage for employees of our contractors, the purported savings of contracting out will get smaller and smaller.” – Coun. Brian Mayes

Daniel McIntyre Coun. Cindy Gilroy, a member of the water and waste committee, said she believes extra attention to garbage collection is required in the communities noted by the motion.

“I think, within our downtown, we just need a lot more control over the garbage pickup and… the cost (to collect garbage) at encampments has gone up substantially,” said Gilroy.

Mayes said those areas tend to trigger more complaints about dumping, as well as more arson.

His motion noted other Canadian cities, such as Calgary, Ottawa and Toronto, all have municipal staff provide at least some of their garbage collection.

If approved, the motion suggests the city could add in public collection in the listed areas in early 2027, which would respect existing contracts and provide years of notice to prepare for the shift.

“We’ve (been) talking about it, we’ve tried to study it, it’s time to do it. I think it will help give a balance… between private and public,” said Mayes.

During the meeting, the head of the city’s largest union spoke in favour of the change, arguing the service would be more manageable with public workers, making it easier for the city to adapt to any new pressures.

“We need … a model of public control and accountability. That’s in the best interests of the City of Winnipeg,” said Gord Delbridge, president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500.

”We need … a model of public control and accountability. That’s in the best interests of the City of Winnipeg.”–Gord Delbridge, President, Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500

Meanwhile, the water and waste committee took no action on a motion to switch garbage collection frequency from once a week to once every two weeks, once curbside compost collection starts. The motion also called on city staff to study options to add in-house collection.

Mayes said he preferred to act now to seek public collection, not just study the idea. He said any change linked to compost collection should be considered next spring, when the city is scheduled to determine more details of its future green bin program.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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