Toronto Environmental Alliance

August 10, 2011
Showwei Chu
CityNews.ca

The city is now accepting quotes on the contract to pick up residential curbside garbage in Toronto’s west end.

Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong, who chairs the public works and infrastructure committee, said in a release Wednesday that the bidding on the seven-year, $200 million contract closes Sept. 27 and will require council approval in October.

The successful contractor could be collecting garbage as early as next July or August, if approved by council.

The contract will be for garbage collection west of Yonge Street to the Etobicoke border and will affect about 165,000 homes.

Minnan-Wong and the mayor have claimed the outsourcing will save the city $6 million a year. On Wednesday the councillor said privatization will save even more money.

“An anticipated 6 month delay in commencement of the contract, which would have pushed the start date to February 2013, has been avoided and an extra $3 million in potential savings will be realized,” Minnan-Wong said in the release.

Critics, including the Toronto Environmental Alliance (TEA), have said privatizing trash collection will cost more money than the mayor and public works department claims. A report released by TEA last May suggested the move will only save $2 million a year, due to increased monitoring costs and contract tie-ups.

Minnan-Wong said the outsourcing “will create an almost 50-50 split, private vs. in-house, and allow the city to do a side-by-side analysis, comparing the area contracted out with the area retaining in-house collection.

“This will help inform future decision making regarding the contracting out of city services.”

After months of heated debate, Toronto city council voted in May to privatize residential garbage collection in the city’s west end.

It was estimated at the time that 300 jobs would be lost through the privatization.

Mayor Rob Ford campaigned on contracting out garbage and the city’s consultant KPMG recently recommended more outsourcing of garbage collection.