'Pay as you throw' garbage plan in limbo as debate ends in stalemate

Ottawa residents might not need to put tags on all garbage bags after all, after a city committee failed to reach a consensus on how to move forward with a curbside strategy.

Councillors spent six hours debating their alternatives to a staff proposal to introduce a partial "pay as you throw" strategy. Staff had originally suggested residents get 55 tags to put on bags or bins of trash per year and spend $3 on each additional item.

At the environment and climate change committee on Monday, two camps formed to back two different motions, but each lost in a tie 5-5 vote.

The series of back-to-back votes is unusual for council and Coun. Shawn Menard, who chairs the committee, expressed frustration at the lack of progress.

"I think what you saw today was politics," Menard told reporters after the meeting. "There's pressure from your residents to vote a certain way regardless of what the data may say."

He said it's "not an easy vote" because changes to garbage collection will never be popular, but encouraged his fellow councillors to think "citywide" and not just about the feedback in their wards.

Clashing ideas on way forward 

Councillors heard an earful from residents after the proposal to implement bag tags was made public May 4, and just before the committee began, Mayor Mark Sutcliffe posted an alternative online.

He suggested the first two garbage bags shouldn't require tags, but each one thereafter would cost $3 to set out. Residents would also be given 15 of these tags, for free and without an expiry date, to help ease the transition.

On the committee floor, Alta Vista Coun. Marty Carr tabled a motion to that effect.

"We already know 74 per cent of our residents put out two bags weekly," Carr said. "Nothing will change for them. They will still be able to put out two bags without the nuisance of a tag."

Carr said the 15 tags offers a "security blanket" that helps the city into the new program while staff work on solutions for low-income families.

But the motion, deemed by Carr and Sutcliffe to be a "compromise," was not acceptable to Rideau-Jock Coun. David Brown, who refused to support any plan that proposed paying to set out trash.

"It's just going to result in a tax grab," Brown said. "We don't want a privilege tax in Ottawa. We need to make sure that every playing field is equal and equitable and a solid four-bag limit is that plan."

Staff weighed in on the competing motions, telling councillors the Carr proposal closely aligned with their research and would cost slightly less because fewer tags would be printed and mailed. The Brown motion was far less well-received by staff, who said it would end up costing the city — and residents — much more because 30,000 tonnes of garbage that could be diverted away from landfill would need to be collected and processed.

Committee split on garbage strategies

City of Ottawa staff had already laid out the challenge ahead of the city: its one municipal landfill on Trail Road is estimated to be full in 13 years, yet residents continue to fill 58 per cent of their garbage bags with plastics, paper and organics that belong in other bins.

Their goal was to change behaviours in the 26 per cent of homes that put out more than the proposed two bins and to encourage them to recycle and compost. Staff estimated their plan would buy the city two extra years at Trail Road, and say it is in line with the 132 municipalities that have already moved to a pay-as-you-throw model.

"Partial pay-as-you-throw programs are no longer best practice across Ontario. They're standard practice," said Knoxdale-Merivale Coun. Sean Devine.

Other councillors pushed back hard, with Orléans East – Cumberland's Matt Luloff dismissing suggestions that Ottawa should follow other municipalities.

"We're not Halton, we're not Waterloo, we're not Mississippi Mills," he said. "This policy is incomplete and relies on estimates that are dubious at best and delusional at worst."

Brown likewise cast doubt on staff work, saying he was not ignoring expert advice, but rather listening to his residents.

They were also among four councillors who supported a failed motion to defer any further debate on the proposed changes to curbside garbage pickup until after the office of the auditor general could review the data used by staff in their analysis of options.

WATCH | A breakdown of city staff's proposal for garbage bag tagging:

Next steps for garbage unclear 

In the end, none of the proposals received enough support to make it to the council table for another vote — a situation rare enough for the deputy city clerk to be called on to describe the next steps.

Because all of the proposals failed, there is no recommendation that will go before council on June 14. But councillors can put forward motions to reopen the issue and put each proposal back onto the agenda.

All three votes fell into the same camps. Councillors Carr, Menard, Theresa Kavanagh, Rawlson King and Sean Devine supported the Carr motion and, when that failed, the original staff recommendations. Councillors Brown, Luloff, Tim Tierney, David Hill, and Riley Brockington supported the Brown motion and voted against the other two. Coun. Cathy Curry could have broken the tie, but left to attend a meeting of Hydro Ottawa, Menard said.

"I expect a robust debate at city council regarding this issue," said Menard. "Obviously any changes with garbage touches every single resident in the city and so they get heated and there's a lot of opinions on them about the way people feel this should function."

The curbside garbage program is just one component of the solid waste master plan, an overarching strategy for how the city will address the issue over the next 30 years. A draft version is set to head to council this fall.