With compost and recycling on ice, some Yellowknifers wonder what to do if strike persists
It's been nearly a week since city workers in Yellowknife officially announced they were striking, and that's roughly the amount of time it will take for compost and recycling to start piling up at one coffee shop.
Rami Kassem, the owner of Javaroma, said the cancellation of compost and recycling pick-up hasn't affected his business yet, but he's expecting to feel the effects after the strike crosses the one-week mark.
Composting and recycling are some of the many city services that have been put on hold while workers remain off the job. Many unionized workers began striking just after 12 a.m. last Wednesday as negotiations around a new collective agreement fell apart.
The union was expected to return to the bargaining table with the city Monday.
"Until now, it's not affecting us. But for sure there's going to be a time where everything's going to be full and we don't know what to do," Kassem said Friday.
They're operating as usual for the time being, though he noted it's been much slower than normal. He wasn't sure if that was because of the strike.
"If somebody doesn't go to work — downtown businesses, they depend on the traffic," he said. "If you have less people going to work, then it's going to affect every business in downtown."
Houseboaters waiting
Benjamin Mochar, who lives on a houseboat on Great Slave Lake, said he doesn't mind letting trash pile up for the time being, but other solid waste is another story.
"[Trash] is something that we can kind of wait to take back in, but the honey bucket's getting a little full," he said Friday.
Unlike other garbage services, the city hasn't collected honey buckets for over a decade. Instead, many houseboaters and people who live along the Ingraham Trail have to drop off their waste at the landfill, which is currently closed to the public.
It's not ideal, but thankfully it's winter, he noted. That means if it gets to the point where the bucket runneth over, so to speak, Mochar's plan is to let it freeze and "make sure the birds don't get it."
As of early Monday afternoon, neither the union nor the city had said how the resumed negotiations were progressing.
Despite the dump being closed to the public, residents with full honey buckets have a chance to dump them once a week. The city says the dump is open Wednesdays between 1 and 3 p.m. for people emptying their buckets.
