\u201cAlthough residential cart programs were rolled out individually over several years, they were designed to operate as an integrated waste management service,\u201d read the admin report.<\/p>\n
\u201cOperating the cart service as one system has led to efficiencies in service design, operational contingency, and customer education.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cover report also indicates that there\u2019s similarity in how cart programs change over time.<\/p>\n
\u201cLabour and vehicle costs, for example, apply across the residential cart system and affect each cart program in a similar way,\u201d read the report.<\/p>\n
\u201cMoving to one residential cart charge helps to convey these costs more simply and consistently.\u201d<\/p>\n
Transparency in Calgary waste and recycling fees a concern for councillors<\/p>\n
Ward 12 Coun. Mike Jamieson said he didn\u2019t think it was helping transparency and accountability by shrinking three Calgary waste and recycling fees into one.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think that it actually makes things less transparent, because people now they don\u2019t really know what they\u2019re paying anymore, at least right now, they can kind of see it,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cLumping all this together just seems like maybe the city, they\u2019re maybe trying to hide something. And I\u2019m not accusing you of that, but that is how some people see these kinds of changes.\u201d<\/p>\n
Radke said that showing it in three different streams feels more artificial.<\/p>\n
\u201cBy showing it as an overall that then allows us to really better articulate what those shared costs are across all three services in a way that\u2019s more clear,\u201d she told councillors.<\/p>\n
Still, other councillors had concerns about how murky the charge may be to citizens, particularly if there are proposed increases to the fees.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have to increase the fee and it\u2019s lumped together, Calgarians will want to know is the black, the blue (bin) or the green that\u2019s causing this,\u201d said Ward 2 Coun. Jennifer Wyness.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s also worried that the need for more communication, whether through mail inserts or other campaigns, will eat into the potential savings. While city admin pitched a potential efficiency and savings associated with the change, they couldn\u2019t pinpoint how much it would save. She called it their hypothesis.<\/p>\n
Ward 7 Coun. Myke Atkinson said that there needs to be a shift in terms of how Calgarians view the entire waste and recycling stream. While it was introduced over an eight-year timeframe, it\u2019s been nearly 10 years since the three have operated and been integrated together.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe need to stop, sort of, portioning them out and pitting them against each other,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWaste is waste, and we need to encourage people to use the green cart first, the blue cart second, and the black cart third, because you\u2019re paying for that holistic service. When we change the mentality by bundling it together, as I think this proposal does, I think that actually moves us in the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mayor Jeromy Farkas said that having the granularity in the three streams was worthwhile.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe that amalgamating this and having one single bill payment is trying to fix a problem that doesn\u2019t exist,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf anything, I\u2019d like to see us go in a different direction as far as having more granularity in terms of the value that Calgarians are getting for other service lines like police or fire and all the rest that they get.\u201d<\/p>\n
There was further discussion on waste and recycling moving to a fully self-supported service instead of a tax-supported service.<\/p>\n
Councillors also touched on multi-family service delivery and usage-based fees for these services, as they vary from family to family.<\/p>\n
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