Organic waste pilot program moves forward at lower cost

Brandon City Council is planning to move ahead with its organic waste program for multi-unit homes and apartment buildings.

Council voted to put $25,000 toward the program at Tuesday’s budget meeting, though the spending will have to be finalized during budget deliberations at the end of the month. The program would allow qualifying people to purchase electric food recyclers at a discount from the city.

Currently, larger buildings don’t have organic waste pickup. Council’s approval would be for a 12-week pilot program.

Coun. Tyson Tame (Ward 10) said starting the program would be an important step for the city.

“Climate change, environmental initiatives — if we don’t start taking little incremental steps, then we’re never going to get there,” Tame said. “And we can look at the last four years and how many of those steps we’ve taken, it’s been quite minuscule.

“I think it’s a dip your toe in the water type of initiative that I can stand behind.”

Staff told council last month that $50,000 would be needed for the program, and reiterated Tuesday that is still the case for it to be worthwhile, as more people in the city would be part of the pilot project. The $50,000 buy-in would allow for 120 units at a smaller cost to participating residents.

Administration recommended that the city not spend any money on the program for now, and to wait to potentially receive grant funding instead.

“We appreciate the value of this program, but in terms of recommending it, I think our recommendation would be to defer this program until we could find grant funding for it,” said Ryan Nickel, the city’s director of planning and buildings.

The $25,000 decision will enable about 100 units to participate in the program, with $100 deposits for each person receiving a recycler, he said.

“To do a pilot program with less than 100 units likely doesn’t have a lot of value,” Nickel said.

The city’s environment committee had recommended spending the $25,000 for the program, which is the smallest version possible.

Coun. Kris Desjarlais (Ward 2) said administration not recommending something a city committee has suggested is odd.

“It’s rare to ever see senior leadership come up and suggest not funding a recommendation from a committee,” he said. “It’s just a little awkward.”

Desjarlais said he had been speaking with another councillor about wanting to spend less than the original $50,000 and that he was happy with the $25,000 recommendation from the committee.

“But to come in here and say, ‘Let’s defer it.’ What are we saying to the climate action plan committee that has been doing this work for the last year and a half after we brought in an expansion to our gas plant and haven’t fulfilled the lion’s share of our objectives toward our climate action plan committee?”

City manager Dave Wardrop told council that the city is hopeful that grants will become available, even if it doesn’t cover the full cost. If that happened, the city could then potentially match the funding.

In December, council was told the program, which at the time was proposed for 120 homes, can reduce a home’s black bin volume by up to 50 per cent, extending the life of the landfill and reducing methane emissions.

The largest cost savings would be for private building owners paying less to tip their garbage, council heard at the time.

Coun. Shaun Cameron (Ward 4) said Tuesday that he believes the pilot program will be “wildly successful” and asked about potentially expanding it.

Nickel said if the pilot program is popular, administration could bring it back to council to then be expanded.

Coun. Bruce Luebke (Ward 6) motioned for the program to be limited to fourplexes and sixplexes, as they are the ones with the largest cost to the city. It would also mean less strain on the city’s garbage trucks, he said.

“Then we’re actually doing something to keep stuff out of our landfill,” he said.

“I just don’t see this being a big deal, and I don’t see it going to the right places — like, we’re cutting ourselves.”

Luebke’s motion was voted down 9-1.

Council approved the $25,000 recommendation in a 7-2 vote, with Coun. Shawn Berry (Ward 7) abstaining because of council’s recent discussions about moving back to recycling pickup every other week.

Berry said he thinks the city should do the program, but that it’s “very hypocritical.”

“The whole purpose of this is the diverting from our landfill,” Berry said. “And we are talking about going back to biweekly pickup on recycling carts again.”

He said the recycling items are just going to end up in black bins, which go to the landfill.

“If we’re going to do this program, I would like to see us keep our blue cart pickup on a weekly basis, year round,” Berry said.

“Until we make a decision on blue bins, I can’t sit here and justify doing this,” he said. “To me, it goes hand in hand.”

If the pilot project is approved at budget deliberations, the city would still need to go through procurement. The project would likely be in place by the early summer, city spokesperson Merrilea Metcalf said.

Council also asked administration to come back to Monday’s final pre-budget meeting with an updated figure for the recommended property tax increase.

Administration had recommended an 11.3 per cent increase earlier this month, but the city has since learned of a $1.5-million surplus and has received $1,035,000 from the provincial government.

Of the surplus, $1.1 million was recommended to be used to lower taxes and $400,000 for one-time council priorities. That recommendation came before the provincial announcement to fund three projects that the city was planning to pay for this year.

The surplus and provincial funding could each lower the property tax increase by about two per cent.

The city’s budget deliberations are set for Jan. 30 and 31, and a pre-budget meeting where residents can give feedback is scheduled for 6 p.m. on Jan. 26.

Coun. Glen Parker (Ward 9) wasn’t at Tuesday’s meeting.

» alambert@brandonsun.com