Green bin fees to be waived

City council voted unanimously in favour of temporarily eliminating the $6.50 per month fee charged to households when green cart composting service is rolled out next year, shortly before the 2017 municipal election.

City administration will come back to council next Monday with information on how much it will cost to waive the fee, and where the money to cover the fee could come from.

Green carts are scheduled to be rolled out to single-family homes next spring. Coun. Joe Magliocca and Mayor Naheed Nenshi asked council to eliminate the fee associated with the program for 2017.

“It puts a little bit of money back into citizens’ pockets and (gets them) used to the idea of the green cart and how it works,” Magliocca said at Tuesday’s council meeting.

While debating the notice of motion, Coun. Andre Chabot said he’d like to know what specific funding source would pay for the initiative.

It’s likely the funds will come from Calgary’s fiscal stability reserve — better known as the rainy-day fund — which has ballooned from $80 million in 2006 to $544 million at the end of 2015.

Before voting to slash the fee, Coun. Ward Sutherland questioned if it was the best use of money for Calgarians seeking financial relief.

Coun. Evan Woolley said while he supported the initiative, there are many Calgarians in need across the city, including children he met while putting on a basketball camp in social housing over the weekend.

“We caught a group of some of the kids at this camp stealing a bunch of the food and shoving it into their backpacks because they didn’t have food for their families,” he said. “One in five Calgarians goes to school hungry every day, and what we’re talking about is taking a bunch of money and investing it so people ... throwing their food in the garbage cans can get a break.”