Mayor Tory pushing to privatize garbage collection east of Yonge
Posted November 21, 2016 6:46 am.
Last Updated November 21, 2016 10:15 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Mayor John Tory is making a push to extend the privatization of garbage collection east of Yonge Street.
The mayor held a news conference outside a resident’s home in the Lawrence Avenue East and Brimley Road area on Monday morning. Coun. Michael Thompson (Ward 37, Scarborough Centre) and the homeowner were also on hand.
Tory said garbage collection is a vital service that the city provides and that he wants to look into how the city can deliver the service to its residents effectively and at the lowest cost.
“It is about value for money. Good services at as a low a cost as possible,” Tory said.
Public Works and Infrastructure chair Jaye Robinson is expected to move a motion forward at the committee’s monthly meeting on Monday afternoon.
“I strongly support the motion Coun. Robinson will be moving at today’s meeting to ask city staff to immediately look at how we can contract out garbage collection east of Yonge and report back in January,” Tory said.
Last year, the Public Works and Infrastructure Committee voted to defer a decision on private garbage pickup, prolonging the debate to this late this year. A staff report advised the city against privatizing garbage east of Yonge Street.
Tory said city staff made the decision to defer based on the facts they had at the time.
He said the deal reached with Local 416 earlier this year ended the “jobs for life provisions” that made contracting out garbage east of Yonge so “challenging.”
The mayor explained that city staff has said that the new collective agreement and the new data they have on garbage collection costs means that much of the previous analysis is out of date.
Tory said the Public Works committee will now consider a “staff report that recommends that we re-examine the benefits of contracting out garbage based on new information.”
The report is expected to be returned to committee in January, and soon after, the mayor wants to test the marketplace.
“We must test the market and see if perhaps a better deal and better service can be done for less money. Quite simply: The best possible service at the best possible cost, that is what we’re seeking,” Tori said.
He also said he is not opposed to having unions being a part of the bidding group.
Currently, garbage collection is already privatized west of Yonge, and Tory had promised to contract out garbage pickup east of Yonge if he got elected.
“Contracting out District 2 has been a huge success story for Toronto. We’ve saved approximately $11 million a year,” Robinson told 680 NEWS last week.
“I think it’s really time to stop studying this and get moving.”
Ahead of the news conference, 680 NEWS political affairs specialist John Stall spoke with Tory. Listen to the full interview below:
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