Cleaning up our mess seems to be a problem in Greater Victoria. The sewage project is controversial and expensive. We can鈥檛 figure out what to do with sludge. Homes and businesses will have to pay a separate tax for wastewater. Kitchen scraps are being trucked to Cobble Hill because operations have been suspended at the only local compost plant, and they could end up in the landfill if Cobble Hill is overloaded.
Now the residents of the city of Victoria will have to pay more money to keep their treasured backyard pickup because the new collection system is more expensive than expected.
Feeling as if they had been slapped in the face with a week-old cod, Victoria councillors last week had to make a choice between two unpalatable alternatives in a staff report.
The report laid out two options. One was to raise garbage fees $6 a year and tell residents they had to drag their cans to the curb; that would put the cost at $174 a year for an 80-litre bin. The second was to stick with backyard pickup and raise garbage fees by $20 a year, taking that same bin to $183 a year.
The amounts aren鈥檛 huge, but it鈥檚 another irritant to people who are already unamused at having to carefully separate their kitchen scraps, only to find those scraps could go into a big pit at the Hartland landfill.
Mayor Dean Fortin said: 鈥淐learly, we were looking for ways to provide a good-quality service to our residents 鈥� introduce the green bins but also give them an opportunity to reduce their costs. That鈥檚 not happening and I鈥檓 very disappointed.鈥�
Victoria鈥檚 new system of wheeled totes 鈥� one for garbage and one for kitchen scraps 鈥� that are collected from backyards every two weeks has been in place since February, but teething problems have pushed operating costs up by $225,000.
The new trucks have had mechanical difficulties, a problem that will sound familiar to residents of North Cowichan, whose three new trucks have been in the shop so often the manufacturer has agreed to replace them.
It took four months to get the Victoria trucks working reliably, but even though they are fixed, it takes so much longer to complete a pickup cycle that the city had to add one more person to each of the three routes to make sure the job gets done without overtime.
Canadians in other cities are shocked to learn that garbage collectors in Victoria go into backyards to pick up cans, but the premium service survived attempts to kill it. Before the new system was introduced, 48 per cent of residents polled by the city said they preferred to pull their totes to the curb in exchange for cheaper service; 35 per cent wanted to continue backyard pickup.
Despite the poll results, councillors voted to keep backyard pickup, after lobbying by Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 50. Last week, they voted five to four to continue that system.
The $6 option, with collection at the curb, could have been done with the original staff levels; it would cost an additional $78,500 a year. Continuing backyard pickup with the $20 option means keeping the extra worker on each crew at an added annual cost of $248,000.
The kitchen-scraps program has been a success, with 34 per cent of waste being diverted from Hartland. That鈥檚 better than the 30 per cent the city was hoping for. Victoria has to maintain momentum to extend the life of the landfill.
Although they have bought into the goal, residents are justifiably exasperated with the means of getting there.
