Costs for Toronto garbage collection are set to go way up in 2020

Thestar.com
November 18, 2019
David Rider

Toronto homeowners with small and medium-sized garbage bins are set to pay a lot more next year as the city moves toward user fees paying the full cost of collection and disposal.

Fees proposed by city staff at a committee meeting Friday, officially launching what are expected to be tough 2020 budget deliberations, continue a phaseout of price-reducing rebates that have already begun for large and extra-large bins.

The annual after-rebate cost for homes with small bins would jump from $99.71 this year to $185.65 next year, if approved by city council in mid-December. The rebate for medium bin owners would end, sending their bill leaping from $241.63 to $323.20.

Bills for the two bigger bins, rebates for which ended last year, would see much smaller increases, from $428.25 to $438.96 for large, and from $496.73 to $509.15 for extra-large.

“The rebate was dropped to balance our budget instead of raising taxes, which is unfortunate for encouraging people to have small bins, but we knew this was coming,” said Councillor Mike Layton, a budget committee member.

To cushion the impact, Torontonians with the least ability to pay -- seniors and people living with a disability who have a household income of $50,000 or less -- can apply for reduced garbage and water fees as part of the city’s tax and utility relief programs.

Hikes for single-family residential bins and extra bags average 2.5 per cent. Separate charges for the multi-unit residential buildings that get city trash pickup would rise on average 1.5 per cent.

City council in 2019 approved phasing out rebates to transition to “a self-sufficient and sustainable utility where operating expenses are fully covered by rate revenues.” The last rebates, for the small bins, will end in 2021.

Residential water users would, like last year, see their fees based on usage rise by three per cent, or about $27 for the average home, from an annual tab of $910 to $937.

Layton was gratified city staff have pledged to consult residents on proposing ways to use water fees to have owners of large surface parking lots help offset rising costs to manage stormwater runoff.

Council last year approved having city staff consider the question, at Layton’s urging. In 2017 Mayor John Tory’s executive committee rejected a staff proposal for a stormwater charge, similar to Mississauga’s.

Layton said it’s too late to change rates for the 2020 budget but he’ll keep pushing for 2021.

“We’ve got manufacturers that employ a lot of people, and use a lot of water, and residents whose basements get flooded when water upstream is too much for the system, paying the cost of our stormwater system,” he said. “Owners of big impermeable parking lots should pay their share.”