By Andrew de Souza

Free landfill passes skipped for the year

May 4, 2011 | 6:25 AM

City council has put off until next year a plan to implement switch from designated free weeks at the landfill to a pass-card system.

The city had been working with the idea of switching to a voucher system so that city residents could access the dump for free at their convenience instead of during free weeks.

Councillors continued to debate the merits of the passes at Monday’s council meeting.

Coun. Greg Dionne said he didn’t support the passes or any free service at the landfill.

“It’s not an entitlement, we have costs to run that landfill and I would like to know of the 13 cities in the province how many give away free weeks,” he said.

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“I don’t support the passes, first the cost to implement them and then we’re going to have a debate on how many times are we going to allow (residents) into the gate free.”

Currently, the city estimates it loses about $70,000 during its four free weeks, where about 10,000 loads of garbage are dropped off.

Coun. Darren Whitehead said he was in favour of the passes because it would limit abuse of the free landfill times.

“I’m in favour of the pass cards, it limits it. Right now you can go unlimited times and people are hauling and filling our landfill up.”

Because council couldn’t decide on the terms of the passes, the city suggested to just begin with the usual free week system until a decision could be made.

“We were hoping to have them in place before the next free week but since we don’t have a delivery date we want to ensure that we had some time to do that,” said Colin Innes, city director of public works.

In the end, the council decided it was better to have regular free land fill weeks so there would be no inconvenience to residents and try to implement the passes at the beginning of 2012.

The first free week will take place on May 16 to May 21.

adesouza@panow.com