WESTLOCK – Town of Westlock residents will no longer be able to take an unlimited volume of trash to the regional landfill free of charge following passage of the municipality’s new residential landfill card program policy.
Passed 7-0 by councillors at their Jan. 25, the new six-page policy caps the amount of trash residents can take to the landfill at $75, a figure which roughly equates to a tonne of residential waste — the Westlock Regional Waste Commission charges different amounts dependent on what the refuse is. Sorted concrete/asphalt is charged at $25 per tonne, while roofing shingles are $55 per tonne, sorted recyclable material is $55 per tonne, sorted metal is $70 per tonne and clean compost is $45 per tonne. Although it’s now passed, the program won’t come online until the spring.
“It’s something I’ve been advocating for a while so I’m glad to see it come to fruition,” said Coun. Curtis Snell, who chairs the waste commission and made the motion to adopt the new policy.
“You most certainly have been advocating for this and it’s taken us a while to get it right and let’s hope that we have,” added mayor Ralph Leriger.
Residents will receive a $75 landfill card as part of the monthly $26.10 fee they pay for weekly waste, recycling, and organics pickup. For residents in the mobile home parks, the park owner will be issued five cards which will be given to residents when they need to access the landfill. Multi-family dwellings, which receive weekly waste services, will share a landfill card amongst the residents in the units.
Once a resident goes over the $75 the town will be alerted by the waste commission and the town will then tack an additional fee on to the resident’s utility account.
Town admin and councillors said that were well aware that the new policy, unless properly explained via ads, press releases and social media engagement, could create a furor with taxpayers.
CAO Simone Wiley said they didn’t receive much critical public feedback via social media after the policy was discussed at the town’s Jan. 18 committee of the whole meeting, although much of it centred on the fact that many had no idea they could take as much trash to the landfill as they wanted.
“The public feedback that’s transpired on our Facebook page … we really haven’t received a lot of negative feedback. It was interesting that some people weren’t aware that they had unlimited access to the landfill. And of course with changes being made in our neighbouring municipality there was a little bit of discussion on that and how the municipalities are managing it,” said Wiley.
“I think the process worked out really well in that we had the ability to reach out to the public in between the committee of the whole and this meeting so council can really see what the public’s feedback was.”
Added Leriger: “It teaches us a lesson on communicating well and getting that feedback and being able to incorporate it into our decision making.”
Ultimately the change was made to crack down on abuses of the no-limit system — at the Jan. 18 COW meeting Coun. Murtaza Jamaly said it wasn’t “realistic for us to provide unlimited usage of any service we offer.”
The town says it has 933 active accounts, and on average 724 are under the $75 per year figure — those residents took 348 kilograms of garbage to the landfill. Meanwhile, 209 active accounts exceeded $75/per year by taking 2,771 kilograms, or 2.7 metric tonnes, of garbage to the landfill. The admin briefing to council states the total, and the type of waste coming from these accounts, indicated it was being used for commercial purposes.
“I think the bottom line is we want to stop the abuse of the system. Basically taxpayers are paying for people who are abusing the system and it’s time it got stopped,” said Coun. John Shoemaker at the Jan. 18 COW meeting.
