Garbage fee rebate set to end

Toronto homeowners with small and medium-sized garbage bins are set to pay a lot more next year as the city moves toward user fees paying the full cost of collection and disposal.

Fees proposed by city staff at a committee meeting Friday, officially launching what are expected to be tough 2020 budget deliberations, continue a phaseout of price-reducing rebates that have already begun for large and extra-large bins.

The annual after-rebate cost for homes with small bins would jump from $99.71 this year to $185.65 next year, if approved by city council in mid-December.

The rebate for medium bin owners would end, sending their bill leaping from $241.63 to $323.20.

Bills for the two bigger bins, rebates for which ended last year, would see much smaller increases, from $428.25 to $438.96 for large, and from $496.73 to $509.15 for extralarge.

“The rebate was dropped to balance our budget instead of raising taxes, which is unfortunate for encouraging people to have small bins, but we knew this was coming,” said Councillor Mike Layton, a budget committee member. Residential water users would, like last year, see their fees based on usage rise by three per cent, or about $27 for the average home, from an annual tab of $910 to $937.

Council will start debating the operating and capital budgets Jan. 10, and set the spending plan in mid-February.