City moving ahead with curbside collection

The city of Moose Jaw will being moving ahead with curbside collection after all.

After extensive discussion during the executive committee meeting on Mar. 26, a motion by Mayor Fraser Tolmie to implement full curbside garbage collection throughout the city and to include in depth community notification and information was officially passed.

The motion will see the city move to full implementation as of June 1, 2018 and that the city charge $7.25 per month to each resident receiving waste collection service. The decision came out of a recently conducted survey that showed 85 per cent of respondents preferred the current garbage collection method until informed curbside pickup would save the city $152,000 per year, after which the number in favour of back lane pick-up dropped to 51 per cent.

For Tolmie, it’s largely a matter of moving forward as a community when it comes to how we deal with waste materials.

“We have to honestly look at this subject and where the city wants to go with our future garbage habits and recycling,” he said. “We’re teaching kids in schools these days about recycling, but we seem to have a bit of an issue walking the talk in this city. This, for me, is a change in habits. It’s inconvenient, but it brings to the forefront the thought that needs to be put in when it comes to being environmentally friendly as a community.

“It doesn’t have to be overnight, but we should move forward. We should do so with an engagement process and letting everyone know what’s going to happen and how it’s going to happen.” Coun. Don Mitchell took issue with how 80 per cent of survey respondents initially were in favour of maintaining back alley pick-up until the financial implications were brought into the equation.

“I just can’t believe that with an 80 per cent general response to remaining in the alleys that we would stick to full curbside implementation,” Mitchell said. “Talk about dismissing the people that we represent, they’re not confused, they understand it well and the arguments are pretty clear in terms of alley design and access.” Mitchell pointed out that given how narrow some streets in the city are and the way some of the older areas are set up and the amount of room available curbside might be extremely difficult.

“Some are easier to accommodate, but in some areas we’ll be causing a great amount of stress and reaction if we proceed without what people said, which is reinforced by this survey,” Mitchell said.

Coun. Dawn Luhning spoke in favour of the issue, pointing out that other communities have curbside pick-up and have few difficulties, and that the efficiencies of the process would outweigh the difficulties in the end. Discussion also took place in regards to the bi-weekly pick-up schedule, including a suggestion to go to weekly in the summer months, but no motions were made in that direction and further discussion will take place in the future. this year.

A total of 112 of those were resolved by an agreement to adjust, 63 went to hearing and 39 of those were allowed. The total change resulted in a decrease of $40,927,420 to the assessment roll, $34,562,020 of that coming from commercial properties.

Saskatchewan property assessments undergo a province-wide re-evaluation on a four-year cycle, with the next revision to take place in 2021.

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