Saskatoon residents to pay more for garbage collection as city moves forward with user-pay

Saskatoon residents are set to pay more for garbage collection as the City of Saskatoon moves forward with a plan for user-pay utility fees.

City council voted 7-4on Monday in favour of a recommendation to develop a waste utility program, including an option to charge residents based on the amount of waste they produce.

• 'That's really dumb': Mixed reaction to user-pay garbage changes in Saskatoon

Councillors also voted for the administration tostart theconsultation process on a number of pricing options.It will then report back in the first quarter of 2018 with a proposed design and timeline for the model.

The plan will address a shortfall in the city's waste management funding, including a $3 million deficit projected for 2017.

Mayor Charlie Clark and councillors Mairin Loewen, Sarina Gersher, Hilary Gough, Cynthia Block, Zach Jeffries and Darren Hill voted in favour of the changes.

CouncillorsHill (Ward 1) and Jeffries(Ward 2) said it was important to act now to avoid further funding problems in the future.

"We've heard that waste is underfunded by about $3 million a year so we know we have to recover that somehow, but where do we recover it from?" said Hill.

"Do we recover it from every single residential utility bill or do we recover it from the people that are actually throwing away more garbage and make them responsible for their waste?"

Hill said the latter was a better option.

Residents raise concerns

A number of councillors who voted against the recommendations relayed concerns raised by their constituents.

Their worries included illegal dumping and neighbours putting their garbage in each other's bins.

Those in favour of the plan said those concerns could be addressed further in the development of the plan.

Councillors on both sides of the debate stressed the need for a detailed communications plan that is transparent about the increased utility costs.

Coun. Randy Donauer(Ward 5), who voted against the recommendations, said creating a utility would not save people money and it would cost them more overall.

Fees will go up

"Their fees will actually go up because we have not been funding it adequately and I know that's not the fault of the utility but we've sort of positioned ourselves not for success on that front," said Donauer.

"So we're going to have a big communications issue that we have to handle."

Move premature: Iwanchuk

Coun. Ann Iwanchuk(Ward 3) said it was premature to approve the plan until the recovery park and organics waste programs were fully in place.

She also raised concerned about the increased utility cost filtering down to low-income renters.

"There are many renters of single-family homes and we know that they pay taxes through their rent," said Iwanchuk.

"I don't see any landlords reducing the cost of their rent when this changes."

The results of the community engagement process will be reported back to a council committee in early 2018.