Duane Hicks
Following a public backlash over the prospect of having to put a bag tag of every garbage receptacle for weekly curbside pickup, town council instead opted Monday to institute a new environmental fee to boost revenues for its waste management system.
Starting July 1, all water customers in Fort Frances will see their water bill go up $4 per month, or $8 every two months (the start date aligns with the bi-monthly billing cycle for water and sewer services).
The one “free” weekly receptacle will remain in place while all additional receptacles will required a bag tag, just as it is now.
The price for bag tags also will remain at $2.25.
Members of council voted unanimously in favour of the environmental fee, with nearly every one citing that the public made it clear they did not want the inconvenience of having to put bag tags on each and every garbage receptacle.
Mayor Roy Avis said people, particularly seniors, don’t want to worry about having bag tags, as well as the expense and trouble of going out to get them.
He also noted the majority of comments he heard in the past week indicated that if there had to be a new waste management fee, people wanted it to be added onto their taxes.
But the mayor explained the province is directing municipalities to move towards having its waste management systems being stand-alone utilities, meaning they should generate revenue to pay for themselves over time.
Having the environmental fee added to water bills, rather than lumping it into taxes, keeps it a separate revenue stream for a dedicated purpose.
“The way of the future is not to add recycling onto your taxes, the way of the future is that it’s addressed as a separate utility,” Mayor Avis stressed.
“So we had to come up with a balance—should we have that $1.25 bag tag or should we not?
“What we’ve done is said, ‘No, we want to go forward on an environmental fee at $4 a month, or $148 a year, and that will go into a special fund to manage that,” he remarked.
The new environmental fee also will generate more revenue than the bag tag option.
For instance, it will generate $93,120 for the rest of 2013, and $184,000 in 2014.
The bag tag option, which would have seen residents having to put a $1.25 bag tag on each and every garbage receptacle, was estimated to have generated $60,446.06 for the remainder of 2013.
Going forward, the extra revenue will help pay for waste management costs, including recycling and expanding the local landfill.
The town will need to begin the process of increasing the six-hectare footprint at the landfill site starting in 2017.
“Maybe three or four years down the road, we’re going to have to expand that,” said Coun. Paul Ryan. “And when that happens, all the new rules kick in and every one of those costs money.
“We want to have something built up by that point in time or we’re going to be looking for another tax increase,” he added.
Coun. John Albanese agreed, noting the town needs to collect money for waste management.
“In years to come, things are going to change. It’s going to cost us money,” he warned. “We need to protect ourselves, protect the Public Works, with a special account.
“Get rid of the tags. We don’t need the tags.”
Operations and Facilities manager Doug Brown remains a proponent of bag tags, however, noting it’s a fair system and acts more like a utility where you pay for what you use.
“You produce the waste, you produce five bags of garbage, five tags,” he argued. “If you produce half-a-bag of garbage, you talk to your neighbour and say, ‘Hey, let’s work together this week and let’s put out one can.’
“Waste will come down,” Brown noted. “Recycling is for free. Recycle all you want.”
There was some discussion Monday as to which option would promote more recycling in the community.
Brown conceded local residents are doing a good job recycling. Annual recycling volumes have increased from 370 tonnes in 2009 to 528 tonnes in 2012.
But according to provincial recycling strategies, that amount should be closer to 652 tonnes—and he wondered how the town can get that other 124 tonnes diverted.
Coun. Ryan said he sees blue boxes at every home (“people right now are recycling to the max”), and the only step further most people could do would be a community compost system.
While the new environmental fee might not make people recycle more than they are, Coun. Ryan reasoned it’s better than making people angry by forcing them to use bag tags on each garbage receptacle.
Coun. Ken Perry, meanwhile, noted that if council dropped the price of bag tags from $2.25 to $1.25 for the second bag, and each one thereafter, there would be less reason for people to reduce waste and recycle more.
“If the second and third bag is worth more than the first bag, it’s going to incite me to recycle,” he reasoned.
“I don’t want to go buy them tags.”
There also was some talk as to whether the environmental fee was fair to businesses or multi-residential units, which have water meters but do not get their garbage picked up by the town nor get blue box pick-up.
But Mayor Avis said businesses can—and do—use the recycling bins up on Sixth Street. And if they’re paying $1 a week, maybe it will encourage more businesses to use the town’s drop-off bins and thus divert waste from the landfill.
“The environmental fee is for everybody,” Coun. Perry said. “Everybody needs to expand the dump, everybody needs to get the recycle to Winnipeg—we’re not paying for that right now.
“Through this environmental fee, we will have to pay for it.
“Going forward, I see on every water account there is a fee,” he noted. “It’s the same as the roads—we have little old ladies who don’t have cars but they still pay taxes to maintain the roads.
“We have families that don’t have any children going to schools and they’re still paying school tax.
“What the heck’s the difference?”
Airport fees
Town council also confirmed Monday that it will be increasing certain user fees at the Fort Frances Airport.
All Medivac flights and all other government aircraft now will pay a flat rate landing fee of $200 plus HST (this will generate an estimated $68,350.93 a year).
The town also will be increasing the landing fee for all international flights from $5.53 to $8 per 1,000 kg, and setting the minimum fee for all international flights (turbo prop/Jet Ac) at $32 plus HST.
This will affect about 100 flights annually and, based on the minimum fee being charged, will increase revenue about $4,000 annually.
As well, the town will institute a new commercial character ramp fee, set at $13.27 plus HST per aircraft.
The projected additional revenue based on 2012 flight data will be $7,829.33 in 2013.
Operators that would be exempt from the ramp fee are those that have a hangar and currently pay leases to the town.
Both the environmental fee and new airport fees helped reduced significantly the 2013 budget deficit.
