Regardless of whether residents bring their extra garbage to the landfill, the transfer station or leave it at the curb, city residents will increasingly pay for the privilege over the summer.
A year-long pilot project for curbside collection customers to leave extra garbage bags for weekly pickup will begin May 1 if council approves the necessary bylaw changes Monday.
Bylaws regulating garbage collection and fees and charges will be amended to reflect the pickup of garbage bags that are identified with a tag obtained from the city.
Each extra bag of garbage, which is to be set out beside the plastic garbage container for the truck operator to dump after the cart is empty, will cost $3.
For those who want to take their extra trash to the Foothills landfill, a $6 gate fee will come in to effect as of July 1. It already costs $6 to take trash to the Vanway transfer station and the Quinn Street location no longer accepts household garbage as of April 1.
The extra garbage fee is the result of a recommendation in the core services review final report.
According to a February report from parks and solid waste manager Flavio Viola, other B.C. municipalities brought in a few thousand dollars from similar programs. Kamloops brought in the most at $4,200 annually with their $2 per bag fee, but that number dropped to $600 after a curbside recycling program was introduced in 2008.
KPMG estimated the practice could bring in anywhere between $230,000 to $460,000 in additional revenue.
The consultant team also pointed to a potential $100,000 in additional revenue if the city considered providing fleet maintenance for RCMP vehicles outside of the local detachment as well as for non-police vehicles, such as ambulances.
But a report from fleet services manager Scott Bone suggests council put the kibosh on that idea.
Operating out of the 18th Avenue yard, fleet services manages and maintains 100 emergency service vehicles and provides "post garage fit-up services" for 42 North District RCMP detachments.
According to Bone, "the implementation of the proposed opportunity would require the construction of an additional standalone building" to complement the existing 18 service bays and 20 staff already working at full capacity.
All told, financing a new building and an extra mechanic would bump up the annual cost of operations to $128,000, which Bone said would far outweigh the $16,650 that could be saved by having city workers perform services the RCMP currently pays to local shops for auto body work, tire repairs and wheel alignments.
Bone's report goes on to say that the BC Ambulance Service is unlikely to shift its fleet maintenance services away from a local dealership due to warranties, parts and service level agreements already in place.
In addition, the geographical area of the North District is so large that there would be significant costs racked up to transport police vehicles from outlying detachments to Prince George for servicing.
