Council's Decision on the Future of Garbage
At the June 14th Council meeting we debated and decided our city’s curbside waste policy, after the matter had ended in tie votes at the June 5th meeting of the Environment & Climate Change Committee (ECCC). What residents might not know is the role that my office played in ensuring that we had an actual debate.
At the June 5th ECCC meeting, we had three policy options on the table. We had the original staff recommendation where households would be given 55 tags per year to use as they wish, with additional tags available for $3. We also had the variation on that policy, which came from Mayor Sutcliffe and Councillor Marty Carr, where each household could put out two garbage items (e.g. two garbage cans) without any need for tags, along with a one-time free allotment of 15 tags, and the option to purchase additional tags at $3. And finally, we had the motion from Councillor Brown, which set a firm limit of four garbage items.
When we debated these options at the ECCC meeting on June 5th, I supported the Sutcliffe/Carr option. I saw it as a simpler proposal than the original staff recommendation, and one that would meet the same objective of diverting more waste from landfill. But in the end, all three options resulted in 5 – 5 tie votes at committee. A tie means that the motion has been defeated. So, all three options were rejected.
In the days following the June 5th ECCC meeting, a “compromise” option was negotiated by the Mayor and Councillor Brown and Councillor Carr. In the compromise motion, there would be a firm limit of three items, and the City would “explore leveraging the feasibility” of the city’s Yellow Bag program, which is currently available to small businesses and residents with exceptional circumstances, and which would be expanded to residential use. But the Yellow Bag program still comes at a cost to residents, where the purchase of each yellow bag costs $4.30, as compared to $3 for a bag tag. And so, for big households that regularly put out more than 3 items per week, each of the two options will come with additional costs. And just as the “bag tag” option would’ve come with additional administrative costs, the “three-items" option will also come with additional costs to taxpayers, including a greater cost of collecting and transporting more waste, and the lost savings of trying to get more lifespan out of our landfill.
In other words, we don’t know yet which of the two options will cost taxpayers more in the long term. But what we do know is only one of the options was going to get us closer to our goal of diverting more waste from landfill. And with 74% of Ottawa households already putting out only two or more items at the curb every two weeks, only one option - the one that I brought back to Council for debate – was going to incentivize the other 26% to reduce their waste. In terms of environmental impact, the choice was clear.
While many of my council colleagues supported my motion, several requested that I do not bring it forward, and that I rally behind the compromise instead, for the sake of advancing a sense of Council “unity”. But I know that many Ottawa residents, and many Ward 9 residents, supported the option that I was bringing forward. And those voices deserved to be heard at Council, which is where competing points of view are debated in public. In the opinion of many, including city staff, one policy was clearly better than the other, and so it was important to give it a fighting chance.
If you’d like to hear my speech in support of my motion, as well as the ensuing debate, please click here. In the end, the motion was defeated 14 – 10. And so where do we go from here?
This new “three item limit” policy will likely not be implemented until Spring 2024. In the months leading up to that, the City will engage in an education and communications program to help prepare residents for the changes. We will also be ensuring that the new policy is enforced, because rules without enforcement are, naturally, ignored.
We need to get better at waste management. According to the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development), Canada is among the worst nations globally when it comes to household waste management. And in Ontario, over 130 municipalities have implemented the kind of partial-pay-as-you-throw system that our Council just defeated. As I’ve mentioned before in this column, rather than lead, Ottawa continues to follow. As I write this on Father’s Day, thinking about the future that I want to pass onto my four children, my choice was clear.
In Fall of 2023, Council will debate our comprehensive Solid Waste Master Plan, which will address multi-residential buildings, commercial waste, the responsibilities of manufacturers, and the urgent question of what comes after Trail Landfill is full. I continue to explore options for a technological solution to replace landfill, but even a technology-based solution must go hand-in-hand with initiatives to reduce what residents set out at the curb. Ultimately, as consumers, as citizens, and as stakeholders in the future of our city, we have a role to play.
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New Ways to Bus: Ward 9 Information Page
Thanks for visiting the Ward 9 information page on OC Transpo's New Ways to Bus (NWTB). This page is designed to provide you with some essential details on how the service changes may impact transit riders in Ward 9, including route adjustments, the rationale behind the changes, and how we have advocated for our residents.
We fully understand that many residents are legitimately frustrated with these changes. Many riders see these adjustments as another cost-cutting measure from OC Transpo, as they continue to face significant financial challenges.
OC Transpo's New Ways to Bus revised route network will focus on frequency, local service in your neighbourhood, and connections to key destinations. Through these many adjustments, OC Transpo's aim is to increase the reliability of our bus route system. Riders will see a shift in the number of downtown-focused bus routes, to routes that improve connections to community hubs and key destinations. Some customers may have to go further to the bus stop, or require additional transfers to buses or trains, or will have longer overall travel times. In addition to fewer Connexion routes, some routes will be retired due to low ridership and to improve connections to new routes and the O-Train. Retired routes will be replaced with alternative service nearby.
For now, the position that Councillor Devine and his team are taking is that we are very sympathetic to those concerns, but that we need to help residents prepare, because these changes are coming soon. New Ways to Bus comes into effect April 27th. What our office is focused on is trying to ensure that our residents are prepared for the change, and monitoring how the new system performs in its initial weeks and months.
New Ways to Bus website
For the most comprehensive information available, OC Transpo has created a dedicated New Ways to Bus website, complete with many useful items, including:
- a New Ways to Bus network map
- information on new signage
- a detailed list of routes that will not change, and routes that will change
New Ways to Bus - Travel Planner
The OC Transpo Travel Planner has now been updated to include the New Ways to Bus routes that take effect April 27th. Try it out! Enter your trip information for a trip that you might take now and then enter the same trip information for a date after April 27th and see what kind of changes there will be.
New Ways to Bus - Ward 9 Bus Routes
You can find specific information on each route in the entire New Ways to Bus network on their new website. Our office has also compiled a series of PDF route maps for all of the Ward 9 bus routes.
Public Information Sessions
OC Transpo has organized a series of community events for residents to meet with OC Transpo staff to ask questions about changes in the New Ways to Bus system. The event that was held on April 4th at the Nepean Sportsplex was poorly attended because OC Transpo did no provide clear information about where the event was taking place. Residents are encouraged to attend other sessions.
Councillor Devine's advocacy for Ward 9
Ever since the first draft of the New Ways to Bus network was rolled out well over a year ago, our office has been engaged with OC Transpo in trying to stop some of proposed changes. It wasn't altogether easy to get concessions, since Council has no authority over OC Transpo's operations. But we managed be successful in some of our attempts, though we were less successful in others. For the sake of transparency, we wanted to provide residents with a summary of our efforts over the last year.
Routes 282/82
- What we won: It's shocking to believe, but in the original draft of the New Ways to Bus network, Route 82 would have seen its service frequency cut down to peak hours only. This would've been devasting to the western part of Ward 9, who are already seeing other decreases in service. After strong advocacy from our office, Route 82 will maintain full-day, seven-days-a-week service. During peak hours, it will connect to Tunney’s Pasture, offering a viable replacement for the discontinued 282 express route.
- What we lost: Unfortunately, Route 282 was removed. While we fought to maintain express service, this decision reflects several lost express routes, due city-wide budget constraints. However, once the LRT Line 1 West extension is complete, riders will be able to take the 82 to Pinecrest Station, for a quicker ride downtown.
Route 173
- What we lost: Route 173 will no longer service Manordale, becoming a local route serving Barrhaven instead. We continue to object to the questionable rational for this decision, as Barrhaven has more than enough routes serving it. We are committed to monitoring the impact of his lost service, in the hopes of restoring something.
Routes 111/112/189
- What we won: When the first draft of the New Ways to Bus network was rolled out, we quickly noticed that the proposed changes to the 111/112 routes meant that there was no longer any bus service on Chesterton Drive, meaning that two schools, an apartment tower, and a large lower-income housing complex would see no service at all. Even worse, Chesterton Drive is on an incline! We pushed hard against this change, which resulted in Route 189 being re-directed to run along the entire length of Chesterton Drive. While this means riders will need to make an additional transfer, it would have been much worse if there was no route there at all.
Routes 89/86
- What we lost: Despite our advocacy, Routes 89 and 86 will see reductions and decreased frequency. We will continue to push for adjustments if transit reliability issues arise.
There are several other changes to service routes in Ward 9, some of which will result in an increased level of service. We'll try to post more information on these changes shortly.
