Editor's note: As separated cities, Barrie and Orillia handle their own waste collection, and therefore would not be impacted by changes to Simcoe County’s billing of waste collection.
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After much debate, discussion, a staff report and a report from a tax consultant, County of Simcoe council voted on Tuesday morning to keep the status quo in place when it comes to how residents are charged for waste collection.
“After seeing the report today, most residents would see an increase (in fees). In this unprecedented time, I don’t think we can put any more additional costs onto our residents,” said Essa Township Mayor Sandie MacDonald during discussion on the issue. “I will not be supporting this due to the hardships it could cause.”
Last year, county staff provided information to council on possibly switching from a system where waste collection is funded as part of the county levy, to a system where a flat user fee is charged to each homeowner.
According to information provided by county staff, under the current system taxpayers pay for all county services – including waste collection – on a scale related to their home’s value as determined by MPAC.
For every $100,000 of assessed value, Simcoe County taxpayers pay $77 annually for waste collection as part of the county levy.
Under the proposed model, the cost of waste collection would be removed from the levy, divided between the number of households county-wide and charged as a flat user fee across the board. Under this model, each household would have been charged $315 annually. Through this option, waste collection would be added as a user fee in addition to the county levy on municipal tax bills.
Peter Frise, vice-president of corporate and client services at Municipal Tax Equity Consultants Inc., provided a presentation to councillors on Tuesday outlining the hard numbers, some of which were startling.
Overall, the impact of a flat waste fee would result in approximately 107,000 of the 175,000 properties in the county (or 61 per cent) paying more for waste collection. The average increase per household was estimated to be $119. Properties up to $726,500 in market value would have seen higher waste costs under a fixed-waste-fee program.
According to a breakdown provided by Frise, the only type of housing which would see a drastic reduction in overall cost would be those in detached waterfront dwellings, with what they paid for waste to be reduced by 27 per cent. On average, those living in single detached homes would see an increase of 13 per cent. Those living in townhouses would see an increase of 40 per cent in fees for waste, while those living in multi-unit residential situation would see their fees go up between 140 and 500 per cent.
Deputy Warden Lynn Dollin, who is also the mayor of Innisfil, raised concerns about the slippery slope that could occur should the county have proceeded with a flat-fee model.
“The real winners would be the seasonal property owners,” she said. “My concern would be that... then they would say, ‘Well, I also don’t use the arenas, and I also don’t need the roads plowed in the winter.’ I’m concerned it wouldn’t just stop at waste collection.”
Tiny Township Deputy Mayor Steffen Walma reiterated his point of view from previous discussion on the issue.
“I’m fundamentally opposed to making this change. We have a lot of things going on. Is now the right time to be diving into this piece?” he asked. “There’s always going to be give and take in this system.”
Before the vote, Warden George Cornell provided some context to his vote on the matter.
“I think when this matter came to council, in principle a lot of us thought it was the right way to go. As we’ve looked at it further and further, the (idea) that 70 per cent of properties are going to have an increase of more than 60 per cent... that’s pretty tough to come to grips with,” said Cornell.
Cornell said with the county working to navigate its way out of a pandemic and a new waste contract and system coming on board at the end of 2021, that the county has enough on its plate to deal with at this time.
“I will be voting in support of maintaining the status quo,” he said.
In the end, county councillors voted in favour of sticking with the status quo, a decision which was ratified during the same meeting.
