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The Cape Breton Regional Municipality is considering hiring private firms to help with garbage collection three months after deciding to stop contracting out the service.
CBRM hired staff and leased trucks to deliver the service in-house, but since then the customer service line has received thousands of complaints, sparking an emergency council meeting Wednesday.
Council was told entire streets are not having garbage picked up and one community was missed altogether one day last week.
“We broke something that didn’t need fixing,” Coun. Kim Sheppard-Campbell said during Wednesday’s council meeting.
“What happened last Friday in New Waterford is totally unacceptable with garbage not being picked up at all,” Coun. Darren O’Quinn said.
“There was not even a truck in my town that whole day.”
In East Bay, resident Bernadette MacNeil told CBC News that since the service changed, garbage collection has been sporadic at best and recyclables have been missed completely.
“They claim that it’s just growing pains, that they have to get used to the routes, etc., but it’s been quite a while,” she said.
“You would think that by now they would have those routes understood.”
During the council meeting, staff said since the new service started, workers have been calling in sick and trucks have broken down, disrupting collection.
Councillors said residents have been told to retrieve their garbage from the curb and wait for the next collection day, but with hot summer temperatures, that is not a good solution.
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Mayor Cecil Clarke said fixing the problem is a top priority and the chief administrative officer is working on an immediate solution.
“If that means bringing in contractors to help support municipal operations, that’s what the CAO is going to do,” he said.
Clarke said contractors are reaching out and offering their services and may be able to backfill routes when workers call in sick or trucks break down.
He said staff still expect to stay within budget and have been directed to make public a long-term fix, including the cost, at the next council meeting July 30.
“We’re taking it seriously,” the mayor said.
“The CAO is implementing whatever he has to to make sure our resources are supported and that we get things back on track and at the end of the month, we’ll have a full report from staff and officials for the strategy and plan and the budget numbers to go with it.”
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