ZERO WASTE? WE CAN’T TAKE THAT SERIOUSLY

Perplexed Saskatoon residents might well be asking where city hall is headed when it comes to handling waste.

A plan to fundamentally change the way people pay for garbage collection was scrapped last month, and what was supposed to be a complementary strategy to collect organic material could soon be postponed.

A lot of effort and money at city hall to address the city’s abysmal record for diverting material from the landfill has produced little in tangible results.

Having failed miserably to move toward its adopted goal to divert 70 per cent of material from the landfill by 2023, city hall now has another focus: Zero waste.

You read that right. The city that languishes at the bottom of Canadian cities when it comes to diverting material wants to start talking about a “zero waste future.”

That would be like U.S. President Donald Trump giving up on building a wall on the Mexican border and deciding that a dome covering the United States is a better option.

Speaking of domes, former Saskatoon mayor Don Atchison was widely mocked for suggesting an atrium over part of the downtown. But is zero waste in Saskatoon any less laughable?

Nobody snickered a week ago when city council’s environment, utilities and community services committee voted unanimously to endorse a report that said city hall will work toward “establishing a zero waste vision for Saskatoon.”

Nobody asked how zero waste was possible for a city with a waste diversion rate of just under 23 per cent in 2017.

Reality appears to have never been a factor in decisions made about trying to send less material to Saskatoon’s landfill.

Just over four years ago, council unanimously adopted the 70 per cent diversion goal. Those who voted in favour include seven who remain on council: Mayor Charlie Clark, Coun. Darren Hill, Coun. Ann Iwanchuk, Coun. Troy Davies, Coun. Randy Donauer, Coun. Mairin Loewen and Coun. Zach Jeffries.

Later in 2015, council voted unanimously to pay a consultant nearly $330,000 to come up with a plan to divert more material from the landfill.

It’s frequently controversial when the city hires consultants, because taxpayers wonder why city staff can’t handle the work. The explanation usually given is that city staff lack the expertise needed in certain areas, which sounds logical enough if city hall then follows the advice.

The study produced by Toronto-based Dillon Consulting, which specializes in environment and sustainability, suggested more material could be diverted with new programs.

City officials created a plan based on the study that recommended user fees for garbage and a new organics program. The changes applied only to single-family homes, but apartments and townhouses and then businesses and institutions were expected to follow.

After a bumpy ride last fall, punctuated by delayed votes, council approved both the mandatory organics program and then user fees for trash pickup. Critics emerged, but Saskatoon’s waste future seemed set.

Then Hill announced a few days after the 6-5 vote on user fees that he had made the wrong decision. Hill’s justification for the about-face on waste seemed as flimsy as the plastic bags that are no longer allowed in the city’s recycling stream.

But council voted again last month and reversed the user fees decision. Now, Donauer has signalled his intention to trigger a vote in two weeks that could postpone the organics program and substantially alter it.

The new organics program comes with a hefty price tag and little recourse other than a 4.7 per cent property tax increase to pay for it. That hike would kick in for 2020, an election year.

Donauer’s motion suggests a pilot project for organics before a city-wide rollout of the program.

If council reverses course completely after four years and hundreds of thousands of dollars spent on expert advice, residents may well be forever skeptical of spending on consultants.

Plus, the pilot project idea sounds remarkably similar to the approach to a new organics program being taken by the City of Regina.

As if the performance of city hall on this file hasn’t been embarrassing enough, we’re now copying our provincial rivals.