Small Load Fee at Foothills Landfill Delayed
Friday, June 14, 2013 @ 4:09 AM
Prince George, B.C.- There is some good news on the proposed small load user fee that is to be charged at the Foothills landfill site.
The bylaw that would clear the way for the $6 per load ( less than 100 kg’s) isn’t ready yet, so, the new fee cannot be implemented on July 1st as had originally been planned. Seems staff have been pre-occupied with other issues, including:
- Issues with the clean up of the Vanway and Quinn Street Transfer stations. Since taking over responsibility for those transfer stations the Regional District has parted company with the caretaker hired to look after the Willow River Transfer station. The Regional District is now looking at putting the caretaker services up for competitive bid.
- The new Multi-Material Packaging and Printed Paper Stewardship program requires a response by early September which makes it tight for having consultation with Regional District municipalities.
The delay in the small load fee implementation, the hiring of a new caretaker contractor and the possible participation in the multi material packaging/ printed paper program could have budget implications for the solid waste management folio of the Regional District Budget. Delaying implementation of the small load fee will also give staff time to finalize an illegal dumping education program.
The new proposed date for the implementation of the bylaw has not yet been set, but it would be safe to say that it could not come into play until at least August 1, as the earliest the bylaw could be presented for consideration would be July 11th.
Comments
Why did they shut down the Quinn Street transfer station. It was a busy happening place.
Wasn’t it placed down in the bowl so that people can take their trash to a location that is near them, instead of driving it up foothills. Isn’t it done this way so to reduce the carbon foot print.
He spoke. Your right on all your points. Who knows the real reason they shut it down.
Supposedly shutting down Quinn and having it run by the Regional District will save the City some $260,000.00 per year. Naturally the City does not consider our having to drive to Foothills as a cost, because it comes out of our pockets.
It would be interesting to know how much the City paid for the Quinn St., facility when it was initially built.
Furthermore the City Yard on 18th and Ospika want to expand into the Quinn St., station, and remove the Sani Dump.
Who knows the real reason they want to move this facility. It could be something as simple as they do not want a garbage dump, next to their brand new offices.
Charging a tipping fee just encourages people to dump their trash elsewhere, like in the bush or on country roads. There are other cities who don’t charge tipping fees and it works out because they are not paying to clean up public lands. If there has to be a charge a two dollar charge would be reasonable, but $ 6.00 is just a cash grab. Not bad if you have the occasional load but for people who live in the regional district and don’t have garbage pickup this will be a weekly fee. I expect illegal dumping will become rampant. I wonder how other cities manage not to charge for tipping…better overall budgeting, management and foresight I’m sure.
So they say they will save $260,000 a year by removing the Quinn St station. How much will they spend cleaning up all the garbage that will now be illegally dumped because people will refuse to drive to the Foothills dump and pay $6 to dump a couple bags? I already see people dumping their garbage in the recycle bins around town and in dumpsters that are meant for businesses.
As a non profit agency who serves over 400 meals per day, every penny we have to spend on emptying our dumpster means less money for food. In the past, our dumpster has been used to dump moose guts and bones, old tires, electronics as well as people’s household garbage. I can only see it getting worse!
“How much will they spend cleaning up all the garbage that will now be illegally dumped because people will refuse to drive to the Foothills dump and pay $6 to dump a couple bags?”
None. It will become the property owners problem. So if you must do it, please consider dumping your crap on City owned land. I hear they own most of downtown.
They have owned the City Hall property for a long time.
It is about time they start charging. If anything this will make people reduce and recycle more. Do it all by weight though and not just $6 flat rate for less than 100kg.
This will NOT make people reduce and recycle more. You still have to pay $6.00 to get into the gate to use the recycle bins so absolutely no impetus there. More like stuff it all in a bag and toss it. It’s a deterrent if anthing for most people when they have to pay $6.00 to drop off their organized and sorted garbage. Most wont bother. You’re charging people to sort their cardboard and newspapers. i think only the stalward stewards of the earth will continue the practice and god love them as someone will have to tip the balance a bit when less conscientous citizens start dumping their crap in alll the other corners of this city. And recycling is way down went since they shut the swap shed down. Just more junk to dump behind the weigh scales. Too bad that a few goofs ruined it for everyone.
Maybe the city should clean up the garbage pile left blowing all over country side down in their snow dump out the end of Domano.
A very disgusting mess it is. Clothing, paper cups, windshield wipers, windshield washer fluid jugs,fast food wrappers, concrete parking lot curbs, bottles, cans, gloves and you name it.
Just a couple things I wanted to mention:
The decisions made by the Regional District and the City regarding this are made by the board of directors, not the staff of the district. If you go to the RDFFG website and look at the board members, you’ll see some similar names to those making decisions around PG itself. All elected officials, all seem to have a pretty similar mindset to our own city council (wonder why… look at the names!)
Second, we’re the only landfill facility of this size that currently doesn’t have a fee. Also, what we do charge for here is significantly lower than anywhere else in the province. 62/tonne in PG vs. 115/tonne in Victoria for example. We also apparently take more garbage here than anywhere else in the province (or so I was told by an employee at the landfill) which is probably due to our terrible recycling programs in PG. I hope the money saved will be pushed in that direction… work on this reduce/reuse.
Finally, I was also informed that it was either implementing a user fee (like every other landfill/transfer station in BC) or hiking taxes to cover the increasing costs of operation. Also, all recycling is still free (compost, oil, batteries, paper, tires, etc).
I agree with the fee although I see the worry people have with charges increasing illegal dumping, but it has been free for over 20 years and people still dump all over town. That is their choice to pollute, if you see them call the RAPP number!
Thats my two cents…
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