Slow response to citizen service request has negative domino effect, says North End councillor
Jacques Marcoux | CBC News | Posted: February 26, 2016 11:30 AM | Last Updated: February 26, 2016
Ross Eadie says missed curbside collection targets show city not ready to take on organic waste collection
The City of Winnipeg's inability to respond quickly to certain types of service calls from citizens has a negative, compounding effect on quality of life and city resources, says Mynarski Coun. Ross Eadie.
Failing to act quickly on rectifying day to day services such as waste collection — as revealed by a CBC News analysis of departmental performance for service requests — can quickly lead to disorder within neighbourhoods, Eadie said.
"If you don't get to it and get rid of it fast, it just gets worse and worse. People just throw it out," he said.
The 311 performance tracking data shows that in the Mynarski ward, thousands of missed garbage, recycling and waste pickup requests flagged through 311 were overdue.
The delays lead to an increase in stolen or damaged carts that are left out on the street for longer periods of time, which in turn leads to requests for replacement carts or repairs and even illegal dumping, Eadie said.
"If carts are stolen, somebody throws their garbage bags, they'll dump into a vacant lot, for example, or a house that is boarded up," he said.
City 'not ready' for organic waste pickup
Eadie, who currently opposes the city's organic waste collection plan, said the missed collection statistics — close to 16,000 cases citywide in 2015 — and the speed at which complaints are rectified add weight to his position that the city cannot support another curbside pickup.
"They're not ready for it. Not ready for source separated organic waste at all, not ready at all," he said.
At city council's Feb. 19 meeting, Ross Eadie authored a motion to halt the organic-waste collection planning. He first wants to see a review of the existing collection performance and look into encouraging residents to do their own composting. The motion was referred to the next council meeting in March.
Fort Rouge-East Fort Garry Coun. Jenny Gerbasi, who supports organic waste collection, said there's no denying challenges exist within the city's current performance, but Winnipeg cannot stand still and do nothing.
"It just seems people are grasping at ways to kill this. It seems premature to just say we should not even look at something that was part of our master plan," she said.
The current collection contract with Emterra comes to an end in 2017, and that could be an opportune time to re-evaluate the city's options, Gerbasi added.
Missed Collection by the numbers, Winnipeg (2015)
- Missed garbage collection: 6,159
- Missed recycling collection: 4,684
- Missed yard waste collection: 3,810
- Missed bulky waste collection: 983
- Missed surplus waste collection: 40
- Missed large appliance collection: 12
Source: City of Winnipeg