City begins private sector garbage collection pilot project

A new pilot project begins today that will see 25 per cent of the city's blackgarbage cart collection contracted out to a private company.

GFL Environmental, whichwon a call for proposals put out by the city in September 2020, will be collecting residents'carts in most of Calgary's northwestquadrant and parts of the southwestquadrant.

Elias Tomaras, a project manager with the city's waste and recycling services, saidthe primary objective of the pilot is to compare public to private service delivery.

Tomaras said that the current contract has been awarded for seven years, with a possibility of a two-year extension. He added that the pilot could bring cost savings of up to $1 millionper year.

"Exact savings do need to be determined over the course of the seven-year contract, which will be determined based on annual price increases as well as the costs for managing the contract," said Tomaras.

Coun. Sonya Sharp, who represents Ward 1, an area covered by the project, saidcity council will monitor these potential price reductions.

"[Those savings] are something we need to make sure we're following up with when we look at lessons learned," said Sharp.

"We need to make sure we analyze how these cost savings are holding up."

Tomaras said there will be no changes to the black cart collection schedule for residents in the pilot area and that monthly fees will appear as usual.

Program requirements such as cart placement, acceptable materials and purchasing garbage tags for extra bags will also remain the same.

"Residents in the pilot area shouldn't actually notice any differences other than the bright green GFL truck collecting their black cart compared to the city's trucks."

Tomaras said that going forward, the city will adjust its hiring to minimize impacts to employees, and that so far there have been no layoffs due to the pilot launch.

Plans to expand the program, according to Sharp, will depend on future discussions between city council and administration.