Garbage collection will cost most Edmonton homes the same in 2022
CBC
Nearly 400,000 households in Edmonton will pay the same for garbage pickup next year, after city council's utility committee agreed Thursday to a zero per cent rate increase in the waste services budget for 2022.
It means single-family and multi-unit homes will pay $43.32 a month for a 120-litre garbage cart and $48.32 for a 240-litre cart until Dec. 31, 2022.
Council is expected to give the waste services budget final approval, along with the operating and capital budgets, next week.
Multi-unit buildings like condos and apartment buildings that are transitioning to curbside cart service will see an increase of less than $4.00 a month, the budget says.
At the utility committee meeting, councillors didn't belabour the zero per cent increase but instead took the chance to review the progress and hiccups of the city's new garbage collection system.
Tim Cartmell, councillor for Ward pihêsiwin, suggested the city look at offering different sized bins depending on the need of the household.
"I've got a lot of constituents, for instance — empty nesters, for lack of a better word, they can't fill that green bin in a week, or two or even in a month, so should they get a smaller bin and pay half the rate."
Some councillors raised issues with the seasonal yard waste pickup, in which crews picked up leaves, grass and twigs in clear plastic or brown paper bags two times over the fall.
Erin Rutherford, councillor for Ward Anirniq, said some residents, including herself, had issues with the yard waste pickup.
"My yard waste was not picked up," Rutherford said during the meeting. "We put it out on the date that it was supposed to be picked up — it wasn't."
Her husband called the city's 311 complaint line, she said.
"311 told him [to] put it out, it'll be picked up within a week. It's now December and it's still sitting in our back alley."
Denis Jubinville, branch manager of waste services, said his team is reviewing how it went this year, to pin down a more effective way of doing the seasonal pickup in the spring.
"We did hear what you're hearing as well, so I want to acknowledge that," Jubinville told Rutherford.
Run 3 Space | Play Space Running Game
Traffic Jam 3D | Online Racing Game
Duck Hunt | Play Old Classic Game
A man shot by a police officer in a condo in Markham earlier this week has died, the Special Investigations Unit says.
Prince Edward Island's coroner's office is investigating a recent death at Joseph A. Ghiz Memorial Park in Charlottetown.
The RCMP is responding to a fatal collision south of Whitehorse that left one dead and another injured.
Foreign Affairs Minister Anita Anand says Canada is calling for de-escalation after Israel targeted Iran's nuclear sites and killed Iranian military leaders with a barrage of airstrikes early Friday.
Police in Prince Edward Island are asking for the public's help identifying two men involved in separate incidents of indecent acts that were reported in Queens County.
A London couple say they've been hit with a steep and unexpected monthly expense, after the federal government stopped an elder family member's old age security payments without explanation — payments which went toward expensive nursing home costs.
"Please, allow me to show you my bus that I drive for G7," says the driver.
Newfoundland and Labrador is about four months out from what will likely become election season in the province — and a St. John's non-profit group thinks there will likely be some big changes at the local level.
Sault College president says its getting harder to maintain 'core programs' with financial pressures
Another post-secondary institution in northeastern Ontario is struggling to operate as it is squeezed by dropping international enrolment and a longstanding tuition freeze.
Councillors in the Cape Breton Regional Municipality have called for a full review of volunteer and career fire services over concerns about the number of departments and the cost of staffing and equipping them.
A New Brunswick RCMP officer testifying at a drug trafficking trial this week was questioned by the defence about theft charges he himself faces in an unrelated case.
At precisely noon, the casket welders, sanders and paint sprayers are turned off and a quiet hum settles over the Magog Caskets factory floor in southeastern Quebec.
Edgar Spence keeps a folded bundle of receipts for meal expenses his family has had to cover out-of-pocket since they were forced out of their home community by wildfires in northern Manitoba.