Trash talk at council Monday to focus on organics diversion
Councillors will talk trash on Monday, as a plan to divert organic waste from the landfill comes up for debate.
The Public Works and Infrastructure Committee has already endorsed administration’s push for a year-round curbside food and yard waste program, sending the matter to council for final approval.
Regina has one of the worst diversion rates of comparable Canadian cities, with about 20 per cent of garbage being kept away from the landfill. But with organic waste making up about half of the average Reginan’s trash bin, administration hopes the proposed program might increase diversion by an additional 20 to 34 per cent.
“This will eliminate 760 tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions and extend the life of the landfill an additional two and a half years,” according to administration.
The plan is slated to cost $7.9 million per year.
Factoring in savings from the move to biweekly garbage collection, administration predicts it would take a $36 annual property tax hike(for a home assessed at $350,000) to fund it.
Council will be voting on whether to consider the cost of a preliminary implementation plan as part of the 2019 budget. It would still take until 2023 to fully implement the program, with a pilot set to roll out in 2020 if council lends its support.
A BYLAW CHANGE TO EASE PARKING TROUBLES
It’s been six months since city parking manager Faisal Kalim first hinted at a pay-by-phone parking app for Regina, and councillors have seemed impatient to roll it out this year.
City hall has already begun the procurement process for a pay-byphone system, after getting council approval in June. The technology will allow customers to pay for onstreet parking using their smartphones, saving them the need to keep coins on hand for the meter.
But councillors still need to change the traffic bylaw, since paying by phone will still leave the meter reading “expired.” That would earn a ticket if current rules are applied. Council will be asked to approve an exemption on Monday.
NEW FIRE SAFETY RULES
City council will get a second shot at passing a fire bylaw Monday, after a previous attempt to keep up with provincial standards failed in 2016 over landlord and tenant concerns.
The defeated bylaw included requirements for landlords to test smoke alarms in rental properties every 30 days. But that prompted objections that the frequent inspections would violate tenant privacy.
A meeting with the Saskatchewan Landlord Association this April yielded changes administration views as “less onerous.”
The new proposed bylaw would now require smoke-alarm testing every six months in rental properties. If passed, it would also im pose fees for false alarms. A first infraction will only incur a warning, while subsequent false alarms within the same calendar year will result in fines of $300 and then $600.