Metro mulls changes to dumping fees

Metro Vancouver is considering giving large commercial garbage haulers a break on their dumping fees to stop them from taking trash outside the region.

A staff report, which will go to Metro Vancouver’s waste committee on Thursday, suggests a cost reduction for loads of up to nine tonnes of garbage from $109 per tonne to $80 per tonne.

At the same time, however, smaller vehicles, which make up 85 per cent of all loads to the region’s transfer stations, will see rates rise from $109 per tonne to $130 per tonne. Medium loads would remain at $109 per tonne.

All loads in Metro Vancouver will also be subject to a $5 transaction fee on the top of the total tonnage cost, which means the average cost for a small-vehicle load, which is about 0.2 tonnes, for instance, would rise from about $22 today to $31.

“What we’re trying to do is align the costs of the system with how it’s being used,” said Greg Moore, mayor of Port Coquitlam and chairman of the Metro Vancouver board. “A lot of it is to address the leakage in the system, but it also reinforces what we’re trying to achieve, which is to allow us an aggressive diversion in our transfer system.”

The region now functions as a user-pay system, where all costs are covered through one “tipping fee,” set at $109 per tonne. The proposed fee adjustment is intended to make the system more competitive for large haulers, many of whom take the region’s commercial and industrial trash to Washington state, via Abbotsford, because it is cheaper. Metro estimates 170,000 tonnes of garbage was shipped outside the region in 2014, compared with 70,000 tonnes in 2010.

However, the move isn’t expected to solve all of Metro’s problems. The region’s solid waste division forecast a $4.5-million shortfall last year and is expected to see a $2-million deficit in 2015 under the proposed plan. Although this will be covered through reserves, Moore said Metro will have to look at other options to avoid a deficit in the future.