Condo group wants waste-removal equity

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This article was published 22/02/2024 (944 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A delegation from a North Hill housing complex appeared before Brandon City Council on Tuesday to decry that the waste-removal services provided by the city don’t extend to them.

Shane Hunter of Brandon Condominium Corporation 155, which runs a three-storey, 25-unit building at 831A Braecrest Dr., said they must pay extra to have garbage and recycling collected from their building.

An upcoming phase two project at the building will increase the number of units to 49, Hunter said, though that work has yet to be scheduled.

Several other residents of the building were present in the audience, and Hunter said there were also representatives from another building with a similar concern.

Hunter said the municipal taxes paid by the owners of the 25 units — said to be in excess of $75,000 per year — should be enough to justify waste collection from their complex in the same way that the owners of single-dwelling buildings have theirs collected, especially after city council approved a 2024 budget containing a 9.4 per cent tax increase earlier this year.

“That’s why we’re here: the unfairness of taxes for services provided by those taxes,” Hunter said. “In addition to our taxes — which does not afford us the benefit of pickup — we pay $399.38 or $4,792.68 per year to have this service provided.”

While Hunter acknowledged that their building’s large collection bins for both recycling and garbage are different from the individual bins used at other residences, he said he and his neighbours don’t understand why the residents with individual bins have their services paid for through their municipal taxes and they do not.

On top of that, Hunter said similar condo buildings, such as Avery Villas, The Landing and those on Village Drive across the street from their own building, are provided with waste-pickup services.

A reason Hunter said the city has given for the extra charge is the single collection bins for both garbage and recycling are similar to the ones at Shoppers Mall. The residents, he said, take exception to that comparison.

He said the corporation first raised the issue with previous mayor Rick Chrest, who left office in 2022, and has continued to lobby the city and their current representative, Coun. Heather Karrouze (Ward 1), about the issue since then.

Hunter quoted a letter from the city’s director of public works from 2022, which said “due to the large number of people within the unit, these locations must share collection bins and therefore the ownership of the bins and any contamination education becomes very difficult as many people are using the same bins.”

Because the building’s waste bins are located in a separate room in a secure underground garage and trash is deposited in them via chutes on each floor, he said this description does not apply.

“We are not asking for any special treatment. We are simply asking to be treated with respect in the same way relative to services provided to taxes paid,” Hunter said. “If a truck cannot be provided, we would like to find another arrangement that will satisfy both the city and BCC 155.”

Mayor Jeff Fawcett said council would recommend that city staff reach out to the condo group to discuss the situation.

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