Charities muzzled on fee complaints

Representatives of charities who started paying new garbage pickup and disposal fees on July1were told Monday to forget about complaining to city hall.

The groups, ranging from churches to food banks to group homes, were set to present their point of view on the charges, which will force 1,100 charities to begin paying a total of $3 million a year by 2015. The city had previously provided the service free of charge.

They were silenced by a surprise procedural ruling by the budget committee chair, Councillor Mike Del Grande, that prevented them from speaking to the issue because the decision to charge charities had been reached within the previous12 months.

Del Grande’s ruling was immediately denounced by Councillor Shelley Carroll, who said she would write to Mayor Rob Ford to request he allow constitutents to address the item when it goes before the city’s executive committee.

John Campey, executive director of Social Planning Toronto, said that charities weren’t asked for their views when the new fees were introduced.

Charities such as Goodwill, which receive a large quantity of unusable donated goods, won the right earlier this year to apply for a special break on the cost of disposing of those excess items. But they’ll still have to pay for regular trash pickup.