The City of Barrie will seek financial penalties from Waste Connections, as per the contract, for the yard waste not picked up this fall to recoup those costs for taxpayers, Mayor Alex Nuttall said Tuesday afternoon.
“As senior staff have been reviewing our legal options, we have informed the contractor in writing that the city is seeking financial penalties on behalf of the taxpayers in accordance with our contract due to non-fulfillment and negligence of contractual responsibilities,” he said.
“It is our job as council to protect taxpayers and ensure that these services are provided," the mayor added.
Bags of yard waste — leaves, sticks, etc. — have been left on city curbs for weeks without being picked up by Waste Connections, and many are now buried under snowfall.
Dave Hitchon, Waste Connections’ district manager for the Barrie region, said the company got papers earlier Tuesday informing it of the city’s intentions.
“They’re within their rights to do that,” Hitchon said. “I understand the pressure he (Nuttall) feels, especially as a new mayor. It’s a shock to them and when you get new councillors and a new mayor and they’re not used to people (residents) yelling at them, I’m not surprised at all.”
Bala Araniyasundaran, the city’s general manager of infrastructure and growth management, said the city’s annual yard waste contract is worth between $600,000 to $700,000 and is based on tonnage hauled.
“The contract has stipulated damages based on the number of routes that are missed and at this point we are still calculating the actual damages based on the number of routes and the number of days that they (Waste Connections) are late,” he said. “So we should have that number soon, but at this point we are still calculating what the damages are.”
In the meantime, seasonal city workers have been extended and are now doing yard waste pick-up.
“We’re working with our existing contractor,” Araniyasundaran said. “We’re also talking to other contractors who’ve told us they might be able to help us towards the end of the week. We’ve got about four city crews working to assist with the effort. We’re hoping that in two weeks we should be caught up with all five zones in the city.”
Araniyasundaran said the yard-waste contract also has a clause that would allow it to recover costs, such as extending seasonal workers to do pick-up.
“Yard waste pick-up is a basic service that is paid for by the taxpayers,” Nuttall said. “It’s unacceptable that basic services are not being provided by the contractor.
“I think the people are frustrated because they pay their taxes and they expect the bare minimum when it comes to what’s picked up at the end of their driveway,” he added. “So we’ve taken steps today and over the past number of days to ensure that both the problem is rectified in terms of the cleanup, but also that we recoup any financial liabilities that have been created by the lack of fulfillment of our waste contract.”
The city has previously said that on top of a record amount of yard waste on Barrie curbs, the city’s contractor has been dealing with staff shortages of curbside collection drivers, due to a nationwide shortage of licensed DZ drivers — which Hitchon confirmed.
“It’s unfortunate. It’s demoralizing for my people that are out there working hard to make sure that the garbage and the organics and the recycling is getting picked up and it’s not being left on the curb,” Hitchon said. “And they’re busting their butts to do that, then they have to read about how lazy they are and how inefficient they are (online). It’s demoralizing for them.
“We’ll continue to do our best to get it cleaned up.”
