Private garbage contract a non-starter: union

Toronto's public sanitation workers won't bid on the contract if mayor-elect Rob Ford opens garbage collection and recycling to private companies, says the president of CUPE Local 416.

"That's something that's really not workable because the union has no control over things such as staffing levels, no control over management levels, no control over things like the purchase of capital equipment," Mark Ferguson said. "So without those pieces of the puzzle, a competitive bid is next to impossible." 

Ford has said he wants to privatize garbage pickup once the contract with unionized workers expires at the end of 2011, and he often references a C.D. Howe Institute paper that says $50-million could be saved annually if the city contracted out garbage and recycling.

The institute says public unions often end up winning the contract anyway, but Ferguson says he's not interested.

"There's been lots of spin and talk about public sector workers not caring about the taxpayer. That's absolutely false," he said.

Ben Dachis, a policy analyst with the institute, said the major savings would come if private employees are encouraged and rewarded for doing a good job.

"With public employees, where their pay or their performance isn't based on these other metrics, there's not really any incentive for improved service," he said.

Private collection already in Etobicoke

Ford says money saved would offset revenues lost when he cancels the Vehicle Registration Tax. 

Private collection in Etobicoke saves Toronto about $2-million a year.

Coun. Doug Holyday, who brought private collection to the suburb as mayor before amalgamation, supports the idea for Toronto as a whole.

"The resident who puts the garbage out when they go to work in the morning and comes home at night and finds the pails are empty couldn't care less who took it away," he said. 

Resident Odo Schmidt says it works.

"If we had a problem and the system wasn't working and it was no good I would have told you that right now, but it couldn't be any better," he told CBC News. 

But Ferguson doubts any promised savings, because the city would have to find other jobs for any worker displaced by privatization.