City council is contemplating a proposal that would overhaul the garbage system and call for a new $50 annual user fee. Other parts of the plan would be funded by property taxes.
The changes include outfitting every home with an automated garbage cart, a recycle cart, plus grass and leaf pick-up.
Some Winnipeggers say trash the plan while others, like Willie Fernandaz, say they're willing to pay more to improve garbage pick-up and recycling in Winnipeg. "Fifty bucks annually, that's not bad," he says. "If you divide it into 365 days that will only cost you cents a day, it's not bad."
A report at city hall is recommending homeowners be charged a $50 fee per year to help increase Winnipeg's recycling rate from 15 to 50 per cent by 2020.
The proposal would see automated garbage carts for all homes to replace cans, wheelbarrow carts and autobins in 2012.
The plan also calls for automated recycling carts instead of blue boxes. Some residents say they can't afford to pay more.
"I don't think it's fair," says Jewels, a howeowner. "I really don't think it's fair for senior citizens and people on welfare and everything, almighty people that are making a good buck. Well good luck to them if they can pay it."
The proposal also includes the biweekly pick-up of leaves and grass starting in 2012, a curbside kitchen scrap trial program in 2014, and the establishment of four recycling centres for construction materials and electronics.
Some at city hall say recycling can be improved without adding a user fee. "I think it's high," says Jeff Browaty, city councilor for North Kildonan. "I think there's enough things without having to go to that full extent."
"The net benefit of taking yard waste out of your garbage does it really warrant having a third truck come down your street every second week? I'm not fully convinced at this point that it does," says Browaty.
Fee or no fee, Willie Fernandaz says get rid of the autobins in favour of carts to help curb issues, such as arsons, and tidy up neighbourhoods.
"It's…cleaner and wider - it makes the street wider," he says.
Officials are still working on plans for garbage collection in apartments and condos and say they will roll them out once they're ready.
City administrators will take this proposal and then use it to help formulate a master garbage plan, so they may or may not agree with all or some of the recommendations in this report.
The master plan is expected to be released in a month. That will then go to council for a vote.
- With a report from CTV's Jeff Keele
