For less than one dollar per residence per month, the City of North Battleford will be subsidizing the cost of the new recycling program so residents won't see an increase their recycling fee for 2014.
Monday evening, after receiving a recommendation from administration, city councillors deliberating the budget agreed to leave the waste management fees where they sit currently, which is $9 per month for garbage pickup and $6 for recycling.
Administration reported that for 2014, a small increase in revenue has been budgeted because the rates increased from 2012 to 2013 resulting in a larger increase in the surplus than expected. Also, in 2013, there were two large hydrocarbon projects and the removal of the swimming pool that brought large revenues to the landfill. Administration recommended $500,000 of the $1.6 million surplus be allocated to reserves and earmarked for future landfill decommissioning costs, that $650,000 go into reserve for the purchase of bins for recycling and garbage and the remaining $483,000 go to other city projects.
Councillors' earlier decision to go with biweekly pickup, with garbage one week and recycling the next, remained intact, although they made it clear that decision could be revisited if the results aren't favourable. Currently, garbage pickup is weekly and recycling pickup is biweekly.
Ryan Bater said he is still somewhat hesitant about the two-week schedule on the black bins. He said he is not sure it will work for all families. He said he supported it the previous week based on cost, but the City did have the option, that if they find it's obviously insufficient, they can talk about moving back to weekly pickup and what that would cost.
Bater said he checked with other municipalities and with the Town of Battleford. The Town, he said, has a weekly pickup of the black bins, but they don't have a mandatory blue bin program. Saskatoon does have mandatory black and blue bins and it is on a biweekly schedule as well, he said.
Councillor Cathy Richardson said, "Just because we give people bins doesn't mean they are going to do the recycling and put it out. I am wondering if there is some way that we can try and educate people but also offer incentive for them to do that recycling."
She wondered if there was a way use could be tracked and a discount offered.
Councillor Greg Lightfoot, chairing the meeting in the absence of Mayor Ian Hamilton who was ill, said while one of the purposes of the program was to be environmentally responsible even though it costs the City money to recycle, it was also about keeping the city's landfill from filling up so quickly, extending the life of the landfill by five to 10 years.
"That two or three million dollars each cell to build is certainly a huge savings that way, and that would be enough incentive for me to make sure that my fees and costs and taxes don't go up to do that," he said.
The short term pain is certainly worth the long term gain, he said, adding that's probably the biggest message they could send out to residents.
Bater agreed, although he singled out the saving of landfill space as the sole motivation of the program. He added people are not being forced to recycle, but they are being given the option.
"I can't think of an easier way to recycle than to have a blue bin out your front door," he said. "You don't have to sort, you just need to throw it in and roll it out once every two weeks."
The recycling and processing contract is to go to Loraas, with the needed blue carts to be purchased from a third-party supplier, Superior Truck. It was decided purchasing the bins would be preferable to renting them, allowing for more flexibility once the recycling contract came up in four years.
Residents who already have blue bins, said Lightfoot, will be seeing some savings under the new program.
