Some residents continue trashing new garbage bins

Hey there, time traveller!
This article was published 30/09/2009 (5890 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For one day only, Winnipeggers can justifiably say the goings on at city hall are just a bunch of garbage.

The most contentious item coming before today’s monthly meeting of city council is a plan to award waste-management company BFI Canada a $13.3 million contract to collect residential garbage in the city’s northwest quadrant using new rolling plastic bins instead of conventional cans.

If the plan is approved, 42,500 homes will have the new 240-litre plastic bins by February and the rest of the city will follow suit by 2013.

But regardless of the apparent merits of replacing trash cans with carts — not the least of which include safer working conditions for waste-collection workers who no longer have to heave heavy cans because the carts can be lifted by the truck — city councillors, environmental organizations and some northwest Winnipeg residents remain annoyed at the way they informed about the idea.

The garbage plan was first made public over the summer when the Free Press and other media reported an internal memo water and waste director Barry MacBride sent to councillors. A public-relations campaign about the carts was supposed to follow in September, but wound up being aborted after some councillors on executive policy committee questioned the plan.

The plan to use new carts was only made public on Sept. 23 — one week ago — when a special meeting of council’s public works committee was called for this past Friday. Councillors of all political stripes, including EPC member Bill Clement (Charleswood), complained they were surprised by the report, which MacBride said must be issued before October in order to prevent the city from having to extend existing contracts.

The plan now heads to a special meeting of EPC this morning at 9 a.m. and then council as a whole at 9:30 a.m. Citizens will be able to formally address council, despite some confusion at city hall on Wednesday over whether delegations on a contract issue would be allowed. Regardless, the seven-day lead time is being held up as another example of city hall’s inability to engage in public consultation.

“The process is definitely flawed in a case like this. Even if the ultimate plan is a good one, if there has been no public input, then the public’s confidence can be undermined,” said Randall McQuaker, executive director of Resource Conservation Manitoba, a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to getting people to use consume less and generate less waste.

McQuaker likes the idea of using automated trucks to save money and reduce injuries, but wants the city to consider issuing smaller carts and collect garbage less frequently in order to encourage households to generate less trash.

Council, however, has little wiggle room. While it’d be nice to defer the approval to October, the city would wind up behind a contractual eight-ball if it did not move forward now, Mayor Sam Katz said.

The mayor rejected the notion any decision is being made in haste. “The city has been looking at this for a year and half,” he said. “Every other city in North America is moving forward with this and it’s time we (caught) up.”

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Also at council tomorrow, Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry Coun. Jenny Gerbasi plans to move a motion to add a hard target to a plan to reduce greenhouse gas reductions across Winnipeg.

Last week, EPC voted unanimously in favour of a plan to cut the city’s corporate greenhouse gas emissions by 20 per cent between now and 2017 and also introduce a city-wide climate change action plan.

Gerbasi’s amendment, which will be seconded by River Heights-Fort Garry Coun. John Orlikow, would add a hard target to the community-wide plan. She’s looking for a six per cent cut from 1990 levels by 2012, which conforms to a provincial target.

bartley.kives@freepress.mb.ca