Kelowna residents have dodged a large increase in tipping fees at the Glenmore Landfill -- at least for now. City Council Monday voted to defer a recommendation that would have seen tipping fees at the landfill jump more than 35 per cent from $55/tonne to $75/tonne. The recommendation came forward after the North Okanagan Regional District recently raised its refuse disposal fee from $63/tonne to $75/tonne. It is anticipated those fees will rise to $90/tonne January, 2011.
"These two tip fee increases on top of a tip fee increase at their gate last year which surpasses our tip fee, can hasten waste import towards our facility," says Mark Watt. "We don't want to lose any space we have through any waste import. The fees we're suggesting at our facility should be at $70 per tonne and we'd like to make this take affect in October to give the commercial sector an opportunity to react to the potential increase they have to pass on to some of their customers." Watt says they don't want to penalize local residents by matching fees charged in the North Okanagan, but they want to discourage the import of waste from other landfills to ship waste our way.
Not all Councillors agreed with the rationale. "I have a major problem with this. I don't think we should be adjusting fees based on what other communities are doing," says Councillor Andre Blanleil. "I don't see at $75 and probably an hour for trucking fees that people will actually drive their garbage down to Kelowna. The cost of trucking could run $50, $60, $70 an hour. The difference in savings is not going to make it worthwhile." Along with the increase in tipping fees, there would also be a $7 to $9 increase in 'solid waste reduction fee' charged to Kelowna residents in January of 2011. Blanleil says that increase could have other ramifications, such as illegal dumping in the woods and a further proliferation of people dumping garbage into commercial waste bins. Councillor Graeme James says, instead of raising fees for Kelowna residents, there should be a second fee for people using the landfill from out of area. "I know some councillors feel it is a regional landfill. I don't. We operate it. We own it," says Councillor James. "I don't see any problems with making money from that landfill. I think we have to look at higher tipping fees for people not from Kelowna and it would discourage people from the North Okanagan from bringing their waste here."
James says the city could use those additional monies in other areas. "We can't subsidize West Kelowna, the Regional District of North Okanagan or wherever. We have to look after the citizens of Kelowna and I'm really not comfortable with some of these increases." Councillor Robert Hobson says there are some alarming costs associated with the report, but, after listening to other comments, reminded councillors the landfill is indeed a regional landfill and not just a Kelowna landfill. "The province has legislated that each regional district have a regional waste management plan, that plan is in place, so actually, Kelowna is the regional landfill. It's a fact of life," says Hobson. "As far as subsidizing our partners, let's remember the landfill has always been a user pay facility and people pay based on our plan of the day no matter where the waste has been coming from. We haven't been subsidizing people who have brought stuff to the landfill. Wherever you came from you paid the same fee based on the cost of the landfill." Hobson says all of those fees have contributed to the development and maintenance of the landfill.
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