City-run garbage collection over budget by more than $1 million

By Jason White

Downtown and east-end garbage collection has gone over-budget by more than $1 million, but the city insists that using its own workers to pick up the waste is still cheaper than private contractors.

Last year, downtown collection ended up $463,869 over budget. In the east-end, the deficit was $608,022. Over the past five years, the east-end contract exceeded its budget by almost $1.1 million.

The city blames the cost overruns in both areas on rising labour, fleet and fuel costs.

Despite the blown budget, the city insists it's still saving money over the next-cheapest bid for the east-end collection contract. The city's figures say using city employees to collect waste has been almost $1.5 million cheaper than the closest private contractor's bid, even after the cost overruns.

There's no comparable bid for the downtown contract; city workers were given that contract automatically.

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