WESTLOCK — Westlock County residential permit holders who want to use the Westlock Regional Landfill or the transfer stations will have to pay an annual $60 fee.
Commercial users, however, will have to make an account with the Westlock Regional Waste Management Commission, the landfill operator, and pay the waste disposal fees set out by the commission. They have until Feb. 1 to apply for an account.
Effective Jan. 1, that’s $85 per tonne, and a minimal fee of $10 per load of up to 118 kilograms. Other rates are available via the commission’s website under Schedule A for Bylaw 01-2018.
This means that permits for commercial users will no longer be issued by the county, and users have to instead go through the commission directly. Commercial tippage is not allowed at any of the transfer stations, since they’re not equipped with weigh scales.
“County is not covering any commercial accounts, so they have to set up an account at landfill and are 100 per cent responsible for paying for their waste, just like all town and village commercial businesses,” said commission manager Tom Moore via e-mail.
The new measures are part of the interim 2021 budget, which councillors accepted Dec. 15, 2020.
Until the end of 2020, the county subsidized all commercial and residential tippage that crossed the scale at the Westlock Regional Landfill, up to 4,000 kilograms total, which costs about $385,000.
Neither the Town of Westlock nor the Village of Clyde subsidize tippage.
Other changes to waste management rules include an increase in the hamlet garbage collection fee from $11.44 to $15 per tote. Even with the increase, it would keep the county in line with other municipalities, councillors said.
The new contract for pickup between GFL and the county has a new rate of $4.90 per tote, down from $9, so the county has a larger profit margin from the service.
During budget talks, Coun. Dennis Primeau suggested it would be more advantageous to the county to privatize waste management and drive competition. Deputy reeve Brian Coleman says that would mean taxing the facility as a business, another positive.
