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Complaints are piling up over garbage collection in rural areas of Cape Breton Regional Municipality.
Councillors say constituents are upset that service has tanked since CBRM staff took over from a private contractor this spring.
Coun. Steve Parsons said complaints in his district are 10 times higher than usual, mostly regarding houses and entire streets being missed for weeks at a time.
“There’s something not right here,” he said. “If you miss it once, OK. Transition? I get that. But if you miss it four weeks in a row, there’s a problem. We never had this problem before.”
CBRM councillors receive quarterly reports from the 311 customer service centre tracking resident complaints.
Parsons said the centre’s recent data shows a spike in complaints related to solid waste.
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“That number flew off the charts,” Parsons said. “The average quarterly report that I get for solid waste is maybe 10 or 15 calls from my district.”
But in the first quarter after the municipality took over collection, garbage-related calls in his district surged to 361.
CBRM acquired new trucks and hired extra staff this spring after a single company bid on the collection contract renewal, turning in a price tag much higher than the municipality expected.
In addition to the change in service this spring, CBRM implemented a new tipping fee at the landfill site and did away with heavy garbage week. It was replaced with a new “call-to-haul” service, where residents must phone to schedule a specific pickup day for bulk items.
At Thursday’s council meeting, staff delivered a proposal for a new curbside giveaway weekend, which would allow residents to leave heavy items out for people to recycle or reuse.
However, several councillors argued that with regular collection failing and massive wait times for bulk hauling, the program should be shelved until next year.
Coun. Steve Gillespie says with major changes in solid waste and the number of complaints received, it’s not the right time to institute a new program for residents.
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“My concerns are with the issues that we have now with call-to-haul and the county garbage pickup,” Gillespie said. “I’m not prepared to move anything forward until that’s fixed.”
He said some constituents are being told their large items won’t be collected until October. “We’re three months into that and it’s still a mess.”
Shortly after CBRM took over garbage collection in April, public works director John Phalen told CBC’s Information Morning Cape Breton that the new service has had to iron out a few wrinkles. Phalen was unavailable for an interview on Friday.
CBRM communications manager Christina Lamey acknowledged the pushback.
“We are aware of some frustrations with how the service has been rolling out so far,” Lamey said.
Lamey said the municipality is running two new garbage programs at the same time and has run into problems like broken trucks and staff shortages. In some areas, large-item pickups are already booked up until November. She added that staff are working on fixes and asking residents to be patient.
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