County explores unifying waste-collection billing system

By Andrew Philips Barrie Advance Oct 31, 2012 

SIMCOE COUNTY – As Simcoe County moves next year to a sole waste provider, officials wonder whether now is the time to create another single collection system.

Unlike curbside trash, however, this collection would involve cold, hard cash as the 16 municipalities that make up the county must decide whether to adopt a single billing system that would eliminate disparities between them.

While the new countywide, waste-collection contract with BFI Canada is expected to create “significant savings, as well as a uniform collection service,” county bureaucrats add this is an opportune time to begin a uniform way of recuperating waste costs.

Currently, eight municipalities collect the waste levy through a flat rate, while eight others opt to tie the fee to a ratepayer assessment.

County councillors will look at their options during budget talks, which start in earnest this week. To help them out, county staff have identified two options that would generate the same amount of funding, but differ in how the funds are apportioned.

The first option would see the county provide a waste-levy cost to each municipality based on the uniform price per unit and the number of serviced units by municipality.

“For this method to work consistently, all municipalities should pass this cost on as a unit rate only to those units receiving the service,” reads the report prepared by contracts and collections supervisor Willma Bureau.

The second option would use the assessment method with the cost of waste collection found in the general county levy.

Under the current system, residents living in Tiny, Severn, Oro-Medonte, Adjala-Tosorontio, Bradford/West Gwillimbury, Collingwood, Essa and Wasaga Beach pay a flat rate annually, while those in Midland, Penetanguishene, Tay, Springwater, Clearview, Innisfil, New Tecumseth and Ramara pay rates linked to their property assessments.

Adjala-Tosorontio Mayor Tom Walsh said ratepayers need to be able to see waste costs broken down on their tax bills.

“I’m very passionate about our waste (collection) and what we’ve accomplished,” Walsh said. “It’s important that there’s transparency.”

Staff found pros and cons for both plans, with the first option following a variation of the existing system, which follows a “flat fee-for-service approach.”

Option 2 would be simpler to apply for municipal tax departments, according to Bureau’s report.

“But the financial impact of this change could differ post-implementation as a one-time variance for some municipalities as a result of assessed values, industrial and commercial impacts and previous levels of service,” she stated.

Midland Mayor Gord McKay, who supports Option 2, said he understands some find the assessment system inequitable because a ratepayer paying a higher assessment might produce the same amount of waste as a lower-assessed neighbour, but pay higher collection costs.

“Neither option is universally fair, but we have to look at it in terms of the greater good, “ he said. “It’s a broader decision for me.”

Earlier this year, BFI Canada was chosen as the sole provider of waste-pickup services for Simcoe County. The contract between the county and the company begins in April and expires in 2020. Worth $10.6 million annually, the contract is for garbage, organics and recycling collection at about 137,000 locations in the county.

It’s estimated the new agreement will result in significant savings for the county. According to staff, the cost will be 21 per cent, or $2.6 million, less than the $13.3 million the county will pay in 2012.

Regardless of which way county councillors eventually decide to go regarding fee collection, overall waste costs won’t be affected.