Whose Can is it Anyway???
Tuesday, May 17, 2005 08:49 AM
It’s out with the old and in with the new, but Prince George residents who have the new “carts” for garbage collection are asking:Whose Can is it Anyway???
The cost for “automated Garbage pick up” using the medium sized container has added another $5.26 to the homeowners utility bill, yet City Hall says property owners don’t own the “carts”. Each one is clearly marked as being the property of the City of Prince George, and has been given a specific serial number. If the homeowner doesn’t “own” the cart, then why are they responsible for looking after it? When the City finishes using a street-sweeper or snowplow they don’t park it in a resident’s yard. Although the City’s brochure on the new garbage system states “households with average garbage disposal who choose the medium cart would see a savings in annual cost when compared to the manual collection process annual cost” it’s a stretch to see how paying MORE translates into a “savings”.
Hmmmmmm, lets see, the “medium” cart is the most popular, so with 22 thousand “carts” out there, adding another (on average) $5.26 to each bill, that puts an EXTRA $115,720.00 into the City’s coffers. That’s on TOP of the dollars already being collected through the utility bills. So if the $5.26 isn’t for the can, then perhaps the City is trying to tell us we are paying more for utilities and the can is free? If that is the case, maybe someone at City Hall can point out how the average homeowner is “saving” money.
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Friday, April 11, 2003
City hall math is trash
Letter to Prince George Citizen
Dear Sir:
I am losing my faith in financial analysts at city hall; first it was gas, now it is garbage. City hall is trying to convince us that a new, untested garbage collection system is going to save the city "in the neighbourhood of" $2 million over the next 15 years.
If that is the case, why are taxes going up?
The analysts must have omitted the cost of the new, required garbage bins that will be paid for by the taxpayer through a $7 increase in utility fees.
The proposal is to charge taxpayers $7 per year for the next ten years to cover the cost of the bins. Multiplied by 22,000 bins, we have a cost of $1.54 million. This, of course, doesn’t include the cost of replacing stolen or damaged bins not covered by warrantee.
That looks like savings until one realizes the costs are calculated over ten years, but the savings are calculated over 15. Unknown at this time is how many bins will need replacement after 10 years of normal use. If we assume 30% of the bins will need replacing through the 15-year savings period, the total cost goes up $462,000 to $2.16 million.
Consider also the savings are projected and deferred, but the costs are real and immediate. Also, the savings could fall well short of $2 million.
But let’s give the city the benefit of the doubt and agree the savings to the city are equal to the costs of the bins. In that case, I am left with my original question: why are taxes going up?
Shawn Petriw, Prince George