INNISFAIL – A blitz of public concern over possible future automated garbage collection service has forced the town to counter that the fuss is much ado about nothing – at least for now.
The town hosted an open house on Sept. 14 at the Innisfail Library/Learning Centre to gather public feedback on automated garbage collection, described by the town as using a single, one-person vehicle with a mechanical arm to empty town-provided wheeled carts and return them to their curbside position.
Council members, notably Mayor Brian Spiller, have since encountered passionate worried feedback on social media and in person, notably from seniors concerned about the lack of back alley pickup, potential parking problems, and having to move large heavy containers from the back of their homes to the front for collection.
Spiller addressed the controversy at council's regular meeting on Sept. 25, and again at the all-candidates election forum on Sept. 26.
“All we did was ask for information from administration on what automation would look like, cost-wise and equipment-wise, so we could educate ourselves,” said Spiller following the Sept. 25 council meeting. “Instead of having that inside town council we thought we would educate the public too and see what they thought, hence the open house.”
He said some citizens, wondering why the town is moving in this direction with garbage collection, mistakenly believe council has already made up its mind on the automated garbage collection issue.
“I said, ‘we are not.' We have not passed a motion. No decision has been made. We are just getting information. It will probably be dealt with by the new council, or left the same, one way or another,” said Spiller, acknowledging the strong concern from many seniors. “Our seniors are very engaged in our community. They are concerned with what is going on and they keep informed.
“Yes, there has been a lot of seniors, but there has been young families talking to me about it,” he conceded.
Heather Whymark, the town's director of corporate services who is responsible for town contracts, noted the issue was first brought to council last February when a new garbage collection contract came up for Waste Management, which council approved for one year with a budget of about $650,000. In the meantime, Whymark said she has not yet calculated projected future costs for garbage automation services. She said it still has to be determined whether the public is interested in going forward with the initiative.
“There is really no hard solid cost other than if we do stay curbside there will be a rate increase. That I know already.”
Whymark agreed it was important to get public input and the new one-year contract for traditional garbage collection gave the town the time it needed to measure local response as to whether automation would be acceptable.
“I had an open house (Sept. 14) to just get a feel and I got a feel,” she said, noting the passionate input from citizens at the open house, but also acknowledging there was subsequent positive feedback. “More of the survey responses are coming in favour than against – so far. It is going to be even-steven.”
She said an online survey to measure public response was open until last Friday (Sept. 29) and a report will then come back to council, probably the new one elected at the Oct. 16 municipal election.
“We will then bring back the surveys to council and what they said, and we will go from there, to see whether we are going to push forward or whether we are going to say yea or nay,” said Whymark.
“It will be up to them (council) to see where we want to go from there,” she said, adding it will be necessary to have a full report to council in time for the 2018 budget deliberations.
Mayor Brian Spiller
"We have not passed a motion. No decision has been made. We are just getting information. It will probably be dealt with by the new council, or left the same, one way or another."
