By Spencer Sterritt

Nanaimo’s new automated garbage costs $440K extra, City council unaware of overruns

Nov 23, 2017 | 5:06 PM

NANAIMO — The multi-million dollar transition to automated garbage collection in Nanaimo is costing more than expected, something only recently revealed to City Council.

Charlotte Davis, manager of sanitation, recycling and public works, told the finance and audit committee on Thursday, Nov. 23, their initial projections for how much it would cost to roll out their new automated garbage collection service was significantly off.

The staff report shows the cost of eight new trucks and more than 71,000 bins was nearly $450,000 extra. This brings the total estimated cost of the program closer to $8 million, instead of the initially estimated $7.5 million.

Davis explained they bought more carts than initially reported to factor in the growth of the city and also because they needed a substantial inventory of carts for anyone who opted to exchange theirs for a larger one.

Instead of six large trucks and two smaller ones, Davis said they bought seven large and one small since the larger truckers were cheaper than expected and also to help in the future as the City expands.

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Though many councillors once again expressed their support of automated garbage collection, the cost overruns were a concern.

“The fact of the matter is, we said we were going to spend this much money and that hasn’t happened,” coun. Jerry Hong said. “Why wasn’t council made aware we were going to spend more than we approved?”

When asked who made the decision to deviate from council direction, Davis said she “recognized the need” for a change and worked with various City departments, such as the purchasing and finance departments, to make it happen.

Davis also mentioned to Tracy Samra, the City’s chief administrative officer, she believed she’s mentioned the possibility of changing the number of bought trucks “quite early on in the process.”

The topic of automated garbage wasn’t initially included in the committee agenda.

During the council meeting on Monday, Nov. 20, coun. Bill Bestwick made a motion asking staff to provide information by Thursday about the tender process to deliver the garbage bins, how much the contractor was paid for the delivery and “the total amount paid to other organizations, non-profit groups or other parties” for the delivery.

None of those were discussed in Thursday’s finance and audit committee meeting.

Coun. Bill Yoachim at one point asked about the Request for Tender process for the project. He said when his new bins were dropped off at his house, “these definitely weren’t union guys in my driveway.”

Since it’s a topic involving labour relations, it was suggested Yoachim’s question be answered in-camera and wasn’t brought up again during the public portion of the committee meeting.

The total cost of buying the garbage trucks and delivering the rest of the garbage bins, expected to happen by summer of 2018, isn’t fully known yet.

Davis said their projected cost may be smaller than anticipated, since it’s likely they won’t need to substantially boost the number of bins they have in inventory.

Due to a variety of factors, the increased garbage rate for households will rise to $165, still a more than 60 per cent increase from current rates.

spencer@nanaimonewsnow.com

On Twitter: @spencer_sterrit