Metro Vancouver plans to raise garbage disposal fees by five per cent annually over five years, prompting calls for an independent review of its industry oversight
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The Business Council of B.C.\u00a0(BCBC) says the brakes need to be put on approval of Metro Vancouver\u2019s long-term solid waste management plan, which will be presented to the outgoing board on Friday.<\/p>\n
The reasons are\u00a0twofold, said Denise Mullen, BCBC’s director of environment, sustainability and Indigenous relations.<\/p>\n
First, the regional government is planning, as part of its broader budget, to raise solid waste disposal fees (paid by haulers) by nearly\u00a0five per cent a\u00a0year over the next five years. The justification is unclear, Mullen said.<\/p>\n
Second, the board that would approve\u00a0plan is filled with directors not elected in the Oct. 17 municipal elections.<\/p>\n
Solid waste is generally thought of as garbage, but it also includes construction and demolition waste, agriculture waste and separated waste such as recyclables and food scraps.<\/p>\n
“Metro Vancouver is the planner, regulator, manager and price setter,” Mullen told Business in Vancouver on Thursday.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur issue with that is it is roughly two to three percentage points above inflation,\u201d Mullen said, who added she would like to see an independent \u201cvalue for money\u201d review of the solid waste plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor businesses, those cost increases flow through to services they provide Metro Vancouver residents. It\u2019s a cascading effect,\u201d Mullen said.<\/p>\n
At issue is what\u2019s known as a waste generator levy.<\/p>\n
In May 2019, the Competition Bureau of Canada said Metro Vancouver\u2019s fee bylaws \u201ccould have significant negative effects on competition\u201d and, ultimately, innovation\u00a0in\u00a0waste management.<\/p>\n
Metro Vancouver operates disposal facilities within its jurisdiction. Private disposal facilities may also operate in nearby areas.<\/p>\n
The bureau\u00a0said at the time that haulers delivering waste to Metro Vancouver facilities were not required to pay\u00a0the generator levy. But, Metro Vancouver now says that the levy applies to all facilities, even outside the jurisdiction, if the waste originated from the region.<\/p>\n
Still, the levy is charged on top of whatever private operator charges for its own service, the council notes.<\/p>\n
The council has raised concerns about the levy\u2019s potential impact on the private sector, while Metro Vancouver maintains that the levy\u00a0would strengthen public service.<\/p>\n
“Other\u00a0communities have demonstrated that a parallel private disposal system would lead to large portions of commercially collected garbage moving out of the public system,”\u00a0Metro Vancouver states in its report. “This would result in waste bypassing disposal ban programs at public facilities and would have significant financial impacts due to the loss of garbage tipping fee revenues.”<\/p>\n
The report also states:\u00a0\u201cCommercially collected garbage provides approximately 65 per cent of overall tipping fee revenues for the regional solid waste system, or more than $100 million per year. The loss of some of or all of this revenue would require funding the regional solid waste system through (higher) property taxes.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Mullen says Metro Vancouver has not fully addressed the bureau\u2019s concerns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do say they have addressed it in words but it\u2019s hard to find the substantiveness of the words.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s conversations around competitive procurement. There is no clarity on how Metro and private disposal companies are treated equally. There\u2019s no independent review, again, and no way of knowing if they have or have not, they just say they have and yet there\u2019s ongoing conflict of roles that they have,\u201d Mullen said.<\/p>\n
The only\u00a0example in its report to the board of Metro Vancouver supporting competition is its use of private contractors to build and operate its own solid waste facilities.<\/p>\n
The council says there has never been a \u201ccompetitive impact analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cA decision of this scale deserves the fresh mandate and scrutiny of an incoming administration,\u201d the council\u00a0said in its July 31 submission on the plan.<\/p>\n
Among the 14 returning directors of the 41-member\u00a0board is Coquitlam mayor-elect Craig Hodge, who also sits on the solid waste committee and the industry advisory committee.<\/p>\n
Hodge told BIV that the five-year plan is an estimate and that the\u00a0projected increase above inflation is due to capital investment costs.\u00a0He noted that two new recycling transfer stations had recently opened.<\/p>\n
He added\u00a0the fees can be adjusted with\u00a0each annual budget.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere will be options to review by the board that\u2019s in power at the time,\u201d Hodge said.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously affordability will be a key concern as the board moves forward,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Hodge said the plan\u00a0had gone through numerous committee meetings over the past four-year term and that a consultation process\u00a0had taken place.<\/p>\n
As for postponing the plan approval, Hodge said Friday\u2019s meeting would proceed. However, \u201cthere are options for elements of the meeting, whether it\u2019s the budget or this could be postponed. This is the culmination of three to four years of work by the zero waste committee and the board approved the plan last April.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a lot of work that has been done to get it to the province\u201d for approval, Hodge added.<\/p>\n