City council was expected to give tentative approval to a three per cent increase in garbage collection rates for 2012, Monday.
Council's committee of the whole endorsed the proposed rate hike to cover rising tipping fees at the Foothills Regional Landfill.
The Regional District of Fraser-Fort George announced earlier this year that tipping fees will increase from $55 per tonne to $58 per tonne in 2012 - projected to cost the city an additional $45,000 in 2012.
"This is not a question of cost, it's a question of how we pay," Mayor Dan Rogers said at the committee meeting earlier this month.
Council was expected to approve the first three readings of a bylaw to increase the garbage rates, along with a 2.8 per cent increase to
business license fees. Results from council were not available by press time.
For a household with a small container the proposed increase would mean the biannual cost for collection would increase from $69.53 to $71.62.
A medium container would see the biannual bill rise from $91.16 to $93.90 and for a large container the cost jumps from $111.24 to $114.58 - if the cost increases are distributed evenly.
The increase is also expected to generate $160,000 in surplus revenue and $50,000 towards the replacement of the six-year-old automated garbage collection truck fleet.
If three per cent increases are implemented in future years,city superintendent of operations Bill Gaal wrote in a report to council, the city would have $700,000 towards the replacement fleet by 2016 and approximately $1.2 million of accumulated surpluses.
Automated savings
City of Prince George solid waste supervisor Chris Bjorn said the automated garbage collection system, implemented in 2005, has been a cost saving for the city.
"If we hadn't changed to that system, our costs would have gone through the roof," Bjorn said.
In 2004 the city conducted an analysis of its solid waste collection service and found a high number of injuries were caused by individual workers manually collecting garbage cans.
In order to meet requirements set by the Workers' Compensation Board, the city was faced with purchasing the automated trucks or increasing the workforce from nine to 13 employees - a 44 per cent increase - to allow workers to spread the workload out, Bjorn said.
In 2011, labour cost $822,000 of the city's total $2.4 million solid waste collection budget, Bjorn said.
A 44 per cent increase in labour costs would have cost the city over $360,000 in 2011 alone.
In 2004, the city projected the move to automated collection would save $1.75 million in operational costs over 10 years.
Bjorn said the system has also been effective in reducing injuries on the job.
"On the solid waste side, we have had next to nothing in the last five years," Bjorn said. "It was a regular thing with manual collection."
Lost work time due to injuries cost the city in WCB claims and overtime, he added.
