WESTLOCK – Two years after Westlock County began charging residents $63 annually to access the Westlock Regional Landfill, councillors appear poised to scrap the charge and provide all ratepayers with a landfill card starting Jan. 1, 2024, with the cost to be rolled into the annual operational budget.
Following 20 minutes of debate at their Aug. 15 committee of the whole meeting on administration’s proposal to drop the solid waste permit fee, councillors voted 5-2 (deputy reeve Ray Marquette and Coun. Francis Cloutier were opposed) to revisit the issue at their Sept. 12 regular meeting. As part of his briefing to council, agricultural and environmental services manager Don Medcke said the solid waste permit fee was implemented in 2021 to help recover the $124,285 they’re charged annually by the Westlock Regional Waste Commission — the permits, at $63 per, generated $90,000.
Medcke, as well as councillors, noted the fee came up regularly during the recent county open houses and that “finding a solution of covering solid waste expenses in a manner which minimizes inconvenience and cost for residents will support council’s strategic pillars through supporting hamlets and the environment.” To make the switch, administration estimates it’ll work out to $11 per tax notice, a cost which county CAO Tony Kulbisky said would be added as a general ledger line item in the operational budget and that “nothing is going to change on the tax notices.”
Reeve Christine Wiese said while she understood council’s decision to go to a user-pay system in 2021, it hasn’t worked and instead created multiple problems, headaches for staff and ill-will with residents. Coun. Jared Stitsen, who along with Coun. Isaac Skuban were on council when the decision was made, said there was a push at the time to go to a user-pay system but admitted it was probably “rushed” and “pushed through at a bad time” and has been divisive for many.
“Honestly, we did the open houses to hear from our residents and at every single one, this was brought up. User-pay was the thing, we tried it and it didn’t work out,” said Wiese. “So, this is us listening.”
Coun. Stuart Fox-Robinson said while he’s a proponent of user-pay, “waste management is an essential service” and opined that the $63 charge wasn’t necessarily the issue, it was the fact residents had to take an extra step to come to the office and purchase a card. Previously, ratepayers were provided access to the landfill by virtue of paying their taxes and received a card they used year over year.
“It’s created an administrative nightmare and it’s created a real point of friction between us and our ratepayers. I don’t use the (landfill) facilities either, but I’ll happily pay an extra $11 and I’ll happily pay the deputy reeve’s $11 as well to make him happy,” said Fox-Robinson. “I mean, when I was running for election two years ago this is something that people … they just couldn’t wrap their heads around.”
Marquette, who said he doesn’t use the Westlock landfill, asked, “Why should I be subsidizing other people?” and made it clear he’ll ask for a recorded vote when the issue comes back in front of council next month.
Coun. Sherri Provencal countered that while she doesn’t have a kid in school, she pays school taxes and hopes that providing a card will encourage people in the hamlets to keep their properties clean, while Marquette added that “ … having a free ticket ain’t going to get them to go to the dump.”
Medcke’s briefing though concurred with Provencal, as he says residents won’t have to worry about the inconvenience of an expired permit or deal with the yearly renewal process and that with “convenient access” they hope there’ll be “less issues of littering on county and private lands as well.”
His briefing states that a “less-frustrating policy” will also alleviate friction between staff and residents both at the transfer stations and administrative building, a point Skuban said will be a “win-win” for the municipality.
Medcke also said that current issues ranging from a refusal to pay fees, to having to turn away tenants who do not have approval to apply for a card and permit-card sharing will “likely be alleviated or resolved” by going back to the old system. He also noted a “a great deal of staff time” was devoted to the permits with a conservative estimate of two staffers spending approximately 150 hours, or a full work month, on the program that cost the municipality approximately $7,500 which “could instead be spent on other programs and initiatives.”
“It’s actually going to be cheaper to the ratepayers in a sense as we’re not having to spend staff time to administer a card program,” Kulbisky confirmed in a follow-up interview Aug. 16. “If it passes, they’re going to get their card automatically when the tax notices go out. I think a lot of people are going to be, ‘Oh cool, they did hear us at the open houses.’ That’s the bottom line.”
