Hill wants to rescind vote on trash fees
Saskatoon’s latest waste war seems likely to continue, despite a city council vote 10 days ago in favour of a radical overhaul for trash collection.
At the end of two days of budget deliberations on Tuesday, veteran Coun. Darren Hill told council he plans to seek a vote to rescind the approval of user fees for trash collection.
Council had voted 6-5 — with Hill in favour — to move forward with a system for single-family homes that would introduce user fees based on three different cart sizes.
When asked why he plans to seek a vote to rescind the decision, Hill responded in a text message on Wednesday: “Because, I think it was the wrong decision.”
Council will vote on Hill’s motion on Dec. 17. It needs six votes to pass.
Council also voted 7-4 on Nov. 19 to introduce a new mandatory green bin curbside collection service for organic waste like food and yard clippings.
The organics program would be paid for by property tax.
Both changes are proposed for 2020 and would apply only to single-family homes.
Council approved the process of exploring a user-fee utility model for trash collection in 2017. Council first weighed in on a final model to change trash collection this fall.
Voting on the new system was delayed twice in September and October as council sought more information.
Earlier this month, council opted to abandon a unified waste utility and one fee to cover both organics and trash.
That model was expected to result in a property tax decrease of 3.5 per cent.
The hybrid model approved by council — property taxes paying for organics and user fees for trash — was not expected to reduce property taxes.
If Hill’s attempt to reverse the decision is approved, the cost of both trash collection and the new organics pickup program is projected to result in a 4.7 per cent property tax increase.
This option was panned by the city administration because it’s not expected to provide enough incentive to divert material from the landfill.
The user fees were intended to encourage residents to throw less garbage in their carts, with lower fees for smaller carts.
City council has adopted a target to divert 70 per cent of material from the landfill by 2023 to avoid costs north of $100 million for a replacement landfill.