Essa wants out of county waste program

ESSA – Essa Mayor Terry Dowdall says residents and local businesses would have better, more cost effective waste collection services if the township was to opt out of Simcoe County’s program and go with its own contractor.

It’s an issue Dowdall plans to raise with county officials at tomorrow’s county council meeting (March 26).

“What we’re going to look into is if we’re legally allowed to do it. We’re not sure right now,” said Dowdall.

The township is unhappy with changes coming into effect next week for the county’s waste levy billing system.

As of April 1, all Simcoe County residents will be charged based on a property assessment system rather than the flat rate, price per unit method that was previously used by eight of the county’s 16 municipalities, including Essa.

Council’s dissatisfaction with the changes has been outlined in letter written by Essa CAO Greg Murphy, which will be sent to Simcoe County CAO Mark Aitkens and Rob McCullough, Solid Waste Management director.

In the letter Murphy calls the program’s cost recovery structure “regressive” because it will see homeowners paying higher or lower amounts depending on the value of their home, even though they will receive the same level of service.

The township also says the changes are “totally unfair” for local businesses.

Dowdall said some will be limited to just one bag per week, which means they won’t be able to use the county system and will instead have to pay for private collection.

While it remains to be seen if opting out of the program is even possible, Dowdall thinks it’s an issue worth exploring.

“If the county is going to export waste, to me, any township can do that just as well as the county,” he said.

Dowdall said the assessment approach only benefits municipalities in the northern reaches of the county where property assessments are “traditionally lower.”

There are many issues at the county when it comes to standardizing services for all municipalities, which applies to more than just waste collection, he added.

“Every municipality is different in the services they want to provide residents, and that’s the problem with Simcoe County,” he said. “There are areas that are heavily populated and there are areas that are not. So it’s hard to mix it all together.”

The township is proposing to hire a local waste contractor to provide waste disposal and recycling services for residents, along with bringing back its landfill voucher system which provides two $25 disposal tickets per residence.

Simcoe County Warden Cal Patterson and McCullough were unavailable for comment.