By Jeff Davis
Like many Centretown business owners, Bob Macfarlane says he already pays enough tax. Enough tax, at least, to get his garbage collected.
Macfarlane is the owner of Pet Circus, a pet shop at 274 Bank Street. He says his business is already straining under heavy Centretown property taxes and there is no room in his budget for any extra costs.
Macfarlane is outraged at the city’s new garbage collection program that would require him to pay three dollars for every bag he puts curbside.
Macfarlane, who says Centretown is already unfriendly to businesses, dismisses this program as nothing more than a city hall cash grab.
The Yellow Bag Program is modeled after an existing program in Toronto which offers curbside pickup to businesses who buy official, city-endorsed yellow bags. This will be the first time since 2004 that the city will offer Centretown businesses curbside garbage pickup. A maximum of four yellow bags, emblazoned with the city of Ottawa logo, will be picked up each week.
The program, which will start in the New Year, also offers participating businesses free, unlimited recycle pickup. The yellow bags will to be available at Home Hardware stores citywide at $12 for four bags.
Gerry LePage, executive director of the Bank Street Business Improvement Area, says this new program doesn’t suit the needs of local businesses. This comes as no surprise, he says, since businesses were not consulted in the planning of the program.
He says the four bag per building maximum is simply unrealistic. In Centretown, as many as five or six businesses share one building. Forcing that many stores to share four bags is unreasonable, he says.
“Who will qualify for this plan?” LePage said in a telephone interview, “one per cent of all businesses? Maybe three?”
Coun. Peter Hume chairs the city’s planning and environment committee. He says Centretown business owners are griping because for years they enjoyed preferential treatment.
Centretown, as the city’s “elite” business district, long enjoyed curbside pickup while other parts of the city did not, Hume says. This unfair situation was why the city stopped garbage collection in Centretown two summers ago, he says.
“We’re not trying to hurt small businesses,” he says, “we’re trying to give every small business, not just the elite downtown, an opportunity to have this service.”
Hume says the money from the per-bag fee will not go to city coffers. This money will only cover the costs of the program. Furthermore, he says the city is not forcing anyone to participate.
One Centretown business that is eager to participate is The Delphi Group, an environmental consulting firm on Gilmour Street.
Delphi’s senior vice-president, Bruce Dudley, says this program makes sense for many reasons, not the least of which is its environmental friendliness.
Dudley says his office of over 20 people produces less than one bag of garbage per week thanks to its comprehensive recycling and composting program. Using the Yellow Bag Program, he says, his company will save money because it will only cost them three dollars per week.
“It already costs us more than that to haul our paper waste alone,” he says.
As an environmental consultant, Dudley insists measures like this are necessary if the city is going to get business owners to think green.
“How hard do people think of alternatives when there’s curbside pickup?” he asks.