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City's private trash pick-up savings don't add up: Toronto Environmental Alliance - 680 News

May 9, 2011
Charlene Close
680 News

A report prepared for the Toronto Environmental Alliance suggests the city of Toronto is over-estimating the savings of further contracting out trash collection and city councillors don't have enough accurate information to make a proper decision when the issue goes before council next Tuesday.

TEA executive director Franz Hartmann said the actual savings would be $2-million versus the $6-million estimate contained in a city staff report.

"The city report has incomplete if not inaccurate information and should not be used by councillors to make such an important decision," he explained.

The group also has concerns with the amount of money to be spent on contract monitoring suggesting it should closer to 20 per cent of the contract amount but instead is 4.2 per cent. That, according to the TEA study, would compromise blue box and green bin services. The findings are contained in the report titled Look Before You Leap: An Environmental Perspective on Privatizing Waste Collection in Toronto.

Councillor Denzil Minnan-Wong, chair of the public works committee, insists the numbers provided by city staff are solid and he's not putting much stock in the TEA study.

"The Toronto Environmental Alliance is a left wing organization so they play politics all the time. (It) certainly does have a political agenda and you might see undertones of that in their report," he said.

The item is likely to be among the first to be dealt with at the May 17-18 meeting of council.

As originally published here: http://www.680news.com/news/local/article/223823--city-s-private-trash-pick-up-savings-don-t-add-up-toronto-environmental-alliance

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