By Amanda Quinn
Capital Ward Coun. Clive Doucet lost his bid for small business garbage collection when his motion was deferred until the economic impact of restoring the service can be assessed.
The service costs the city between $400,000 and $500,000 annually and was eliminated last year due to budget cuts.
Doucet says he rejected the motion to cut the service in May 2004, but it went through anyway.
He says he wants the service restored, and raised the issue during budget deliberations. “My opinion about this hasn’t changed. It’s really tough financially on small businesses, so we definitely have to do something about it.”
As of July 5, 2004, businesses were forced to find their own methods of getting rid of trash, including paying private companies.
“Everyone has a different pick-up day now. This is completely inefficient. The city has a responsibility to deal with businesses, especially those that are on public streets,” he says.
Somerset Ward Coun. Diane Holmes says she supports the idea, but isn’t sure about how it will be received by council during budget talks.
“I don’t know how it will fare, but I will definitely vote in favor of reinstating the service. We do have to fix this.”
Holmes says small businesses are forced to hire private companies to collect their garbage, and it has made for a “messy affair” on the streets.
“There are different companies coming on different days now. We have garbage trucks on the streets everyday,” she says.
Alex Mortimer, manager of Song Bird Music on Gladstone Avenue, says it costs him an extra $2,500 per year for garbage collection.
“This was such a surprising, sudden and large expense for us,” he says. “I don’t think city council realized how much we’d be charged.”
Mortimer says the current system is confusing because city garbage collectors often mix up residential and business trash, and sometimes garbage belonging to residents isn’t collected at all.
Mortimer says dealing with an independent garbage removal company is often frustrating.
“Sometimes they only want to pick up stuff on one side of the road so we end up dragging cardboard and garbage bags across Gladstone during rush hour.”
He says Doucet’s push to have the service restored for small businesses is necessary because many businesses struggle to pay for private garbage removal.
“I think that what Coun. Doucet is doing is just a natural reaction, because this is such a huge expense for us. A lot of business owners are freaking out.”
Jean Martin, owner of Images on Bank, says he has also hired a private company to collect his garbage. It costs him an extra $1,000 per year and he says the current system isn’t working.
“It just doesn’t seem that they care very much about us, we’re not a huge majority. I would love to see it happen, but personally, I’m very pessimistic about it.”
But Doucet says he’s confident that a solution will be found.