The savings from contracting-out garbage collection aren’t quite as impressive as Mayor Rob Ford’s administration says.
The administration likes to emphasize taxpayers will save $11 million a year by having a private company collect garbage from 165,000 homes west of Yonge St.
What wasn’t mentioned when the collection contract was awarded by city council last month is the approximately $5 million spent upgrading the Ingram Yard for maintenance and parking of garbage trucks. It turns out the contractor doesn’t need the facility.
As recently as January of this year, after Mayor Rob Ford had taken office, council’s government management committee adopted a staff request to increase the renovation budget by $800,000 to cover unforeseen costs.
The city offered to lease its upgraded yard to GFL Environmental East Corp., which won the collection contract west of Yonge St. to the Humber River and from Lake Ontario to Steeles Ave.
But the company has its own truck servicing and turned down the offer to lease Ingram for $444,000 a year plus utilities and $130,000 in annual property taxes. The city is now trying to figure out what to do with the facility.
It was surprising that GFL didn’t want it, said Dave Hewitt, of the union representing city garbage collectors.
“I thought they would use that facility because it was renovated, a newly renovated state-of-the-art facility,” said Hewitt, vice-president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 416.
“They gutted all of it and put everything new inside,” Hewitt said. “There’s a new wash bay for the vehicles, new washroom and shower facilities, new mechanics bays — and they raised the roof over the mechanics bays so they could hoist the trucks up to repair them easier.”
Also, the parking area for the trucks and staff parking was repaved.
The 2.7-hectare (6.7-acre) yard is next door to the Ingram garbage transfer station, in the Keele St. and St. Lawrence Ave. area. It has been used to service and park city garbage trucks dropping off garbage to the transfer station.
Starting in August of next year, GFL will take over collection in the area, a move that will see city trucks sold and city workers transferred to east of Yonge, where the city continues to collect garbage in-house.
City records show a $4 million renovation contract went to Atlas Corp. in 2010. That was increased earlier this year by $557,000 because the floor slab in the garage repair area had been built in 1989 on unstable soil and piles had to be driven to support the new slab.
Also, roof decking, overhead doors and other items couldn’t be reused, increasing costs by $173,000. An extra $70,000 was set aside to cover any additional unforeseen site conditions.
A $1.2 million paving contract also was inked, of which the federal government paid $400,000 under its Infrastructure Stimulus Fund program.
The official in charge of collection in solid waste management services referred a question about the future of the site to a communications staffer, who said the matter was under review.
Councillor Frank Di Giorgio, who represents the area, said he suspects the city could use the yard for other purposes.
A separate fenced-off area contains a road salt dome and is used to park snow clearing equipment, and that activity could possibly be expanded, suggested Di Giorgio (Ward 12, York South-Weston).
“There’s lots of salt-spreading vehicles or whatnot, there’s lots of things the city could use it for. They could turn it into a works yard,” Di Giorgio said.
However, transportation services general manager Gary Welsh said his division uses Ingram strictly for winter operations.
“We’ve got a yard just south of there, Castlefield, which is our major operations yard,” Welsh said. “It’s a block and a half away.”
The Ingram Yard is “potentially suitable to a number of operating functions,” said Pat Barrett, a spokesperson for solid waste management services.
“Keeping this in mind, solid waste will review its ongoing operational needs and make a determination in 2012 on the future use of Ingram Yard.”
Ford didn’t respond to the Star’s request for comment.
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
The administration likes to emphasize taxpayers will save $11 million a year by having a private company collect garbage from 165,000 homes west of Yonge St.
What wasn’t mentioned when the collection contract was awarded by city council last month is the approximately $5 million spent upgrading the Ingram Yard for maintenance and parking of garbage trucks. It turns out the contractor doesn’t need the facility.
As recently as January of this year, after Mayor Rob Ford had taken office, council’s government management committee adopted a staff request to increase the renovation budget by $800,000 to cover unforeseen costs.
The city offered to lease its upgraded yard to GFL Environmental East Corp., which won the collection contract west of Yonge St. to the Humber River and from Lake Ontario to Steeles Ave.
But the company has its own truck servicing and turned down the offer to lease Ingram for $444,000 a year plus utilities and $130,000 in annual property taxes. The city is now trying to figure out what to do with the facility.
It was surprising that GFL didn’t want it, said Dave Hewitt, of the union representing city garbage collectors.
“I thought they would use that facility because it was renovated, a newly renovated state-of-the-art facility,” said Hewitt, vice-president of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, Local 416.
“They gutted all of it and put everything new inside,” Hewitt said. “There’s a new wash bay for the vehicles, new washroom and shower facilities, new mechanics bays — and they raised the roof over the mechanics bays so they could hoist the trucks up to repair them easier.”
Also, the parking area for the trucks and staff parking was repaved.
The 2.7-hectare (6.7-acre) yard is next door to the Ingram garbage transfer station, in the Keele St. and St. Lawrence Ave. area. It has been used to service and park city garbage trucks dropping off garbage to the transfer station.
Starting in August of next year, GFL will take over collection in the area, a move that will see city trucks sold and city workers transferred to east of Yonge, where the city continues to collect garbage in-house.
City records show a $4 million renovation contract went to Atlas Corp. in 2010. That was increased earlier this year by $557,000 because the floor slab in the garage repair area had been built in 1989 on unstable soil and piles had to be driven to support the new slab.
Also, roof decking, overhead doors and other items couldn’t be reused, increasing costs by $173,000. An extra $70,000 was set aside to cover any additional unforeseen site conditions.
A $1.2 million paving contract also was inked, of which the federal government paid $400,000 under its Infrastructure Stimulus Fund program.
The official in charge of collection in solid waste management services referred a question about the future of the site to a communications staffer, who said the matter was under review.
Councillor Frank Di Giorgio, who represents the area, said he suspects the city could use the yard for other purposes.
A separate fenced-off area contains a road salt dome and is used to park snow clearing equipment, and that activity could possibly be expanded, suggested Di Giorgio (Ward 12, York South-Weston).
“There’s lots of salt-spreading vehicles or whatnot, there’s lots of things the city could use it for. They could turn it into a works yard,” Di Giorgio said.
However, transportation services general manager Gary Welsh said his division uses Ingram strictly for winter operations.
“We’ve got a yard just south of there, Castlefield, which is our major operations yard,” Welsh said. “It’s a block and a half away.”
The Ingram Yard is “potentially suitable to a number of operating functions,” said Pat Barrett, a spokesperson for solid waste management services.
“Keeping this in mind, solid waste will review its ongoing operational needs and make a determination in 2012 on the future use of Ingram Yard.”
Ford didn’t respond to the Star’s request for comment.
Origin
Source: Toronto Star
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