By Andrew de Souza

Landfill fees to increase in April

Dec 14, 2010 | 5:08 AM

Users of the city’s landfill will see an increase in fees starting in April of next year.

City council voted in favour of the increases at Monday’s city council meeting.

Residents from municipalities that are part of the North Central Saskatchewan Waste Management Corporation, including Prince Albert, will see the minimum dumping fees increase to $7.50 from $5. The per-tonne rate at the landfill will increase to $50 from $42.

Residential homes will see an increase of 40 cents to their monthly garbage pick-up fees each year from 2011 until 2015 and multi-residential units will be charged as if each unit is a single-family residence.

The largest increase is for residents who live outside the waste management corporation. They’ll see double the fees across the board to use the facility.

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According to city councillor Martin Ring, the increases are justified. He said the facility costs the city too much and neighbouring municipalities just aren’t paying enough into it.

“We’ve got a landfill that is costing us millions of dollars,” said Ring. “We’re the ones putting money into it. None of these surrounding R.M.s, even if they’re members of North Central Waste Management, they’re not ponying up the money to go into the landfill.”

Ring said he hoped the additional fees would also act as an incentive to increase recycling among users—the more material recycled, the lighter the loads coming into the landfill.

Some councillors expressed their concern that such a high increase for out-of-region users would result in more illegal dumping. Council voted in favour of the motion despite those concerns.

The increased fees will be implemented on April 1, 2011.

adesouza@panow.com