Committee quashes pilot project to clean up super mailboxes

Vaughan Weekly
January 22, 2014   
By Angela Gismondi

The City will not be moving ahead with a pilot project to clean up super mailboxes in residential neighbourhoods in Vaughan.

The debate surrounding the pilot project resurfaced at the finance and administration committee meeting on Jan. 15.  The project was first discussed at an earlier budget meeting at which time committee members questioned the implications of including the project in the 2014 budget.

While some councillors were of the opinion that it’s the residents responsibility to keep the areas around community mailboxes clean, others argued that the areas are part of the City and it is therefore the City’s responsibility to remove the litter which accumulates there.

If the project was approved, the City would have purchased and installed special recycling containers at 150 community mailbox locations and paid for the collection of materials. The financial implications for the pilot  project was an additional resource request of $26,000 in operating funds to pay for the contracted collection of the materials and $146,775 in capital funds to purchase and install the 150 specially designed recycling containers. If the program was successful and rolled-out to all the existing 1,100 community mailboxes in the City, it would mean a one-time capital cost of $978,000 and an annual operating cost of $173,000.

“That’s an enhancement of service and I don’t think it’s something sustainable,” said Councillor Deb Schulte. “I don’t think we should be taking on this responsibility. It’s not the direction we want to go.”

She asked that it be removed from the budget.

Councillor Marilyn Iafrate, chair of the finance and administration committee, said she is very concerned with the proposed project because it would represent a brand new service level the City would be providing.

“I think this is ludicrous,” said Iafrate, adding it would cost $1.15 million to run the program city-wide. “We can’t pay our other bills and then we’re going to bring something like this in ... I don’t think we should ever bring in this kind of service. We can’t afford it. What’s the next thing we’re going to do poop and scoop? This opens a can of worms and I’m not interested.”

Councillor Tony Carella agreed it is not the City’s responsibility to clean up the mess.

“Why should we be cleaning up Canada Posts mess?” asked Carella. “We need a strategy to direct these concerns to the federal government who governs Canada Post.”

Councillor Alan Shefman said his constituents have been voicing their concerns about the mess created around the super mailboxes since he was first elected.

“It’s maybe not the most important issue in the world but it’s time we bite the bullet,” said Shefman adding the City has approached Canada Post many times and hasn’t made any progress. “They make more money from junk mail than anything else so they’re not going to put a garbage can there to get rid of it. Either we deal with this issue or we have irate residents can’t stand the mess super mailboxes create. We need to provide assistance to a problem where there is no other solution. We really need to deal with this.”

Councillor Rosanna DeFrancesca said it’s not all Canada Post’s fault.

“Our residents are littering their own streets and they expect us to clean it up because they’re paying for it,” said DeFrancesca, adding that the City already spends the money anyway by sending crews to clean up these areas. The program makes this process more transparent, she said. “Our residents created it and now we have to clean it up. I think the pilot project is a great idea. I don’t know how else to deal with this.”

Councillor Gino Rosati suggested that signage be put up in the area of the super mailboxes to deter people from  littering, adding that it might help to include that it’s against the law and offenders will be fined.

Carella suggested the project be removed from the budget.

DeFrancesca asked committee members to reconsider.

“Without this pilot project we will never know what words and what doesn’t,” she said. “Right now I think it’s premature to say ‘I am not willing to invest a dime in this project.’ It is our responsibility to keep our streets clean.”

Bad behaviour should not be rewarded, Mayor Maurizio Bevilacqua pointed out.

“We should not be supporting those who litter in our community,” said Bevilacqua. “In a civilized society is it really too much to ask that people not dirty the environment by littering. I don’t think taxpayers ought to be subsidizing individuals that are breaking the law.”

He suggested that the City take a different approach on the matter, one of zero tolerance.

“A message should be sent that we are going to stop cleaning it up,” said Bevilacqua. “Sometimes taking a hard line is good.”

But Shefman disagreed and suggested scaling back the pilot project instead of eliminating it altogether.

“The reality is that people shouldn’t litter but in the real world people do litter,” he said. “What I’ve heard around the table is that we shouldn’t bother. But we do care. These are our residential neighbourhoods.”

Schulte was concerned the project would open a can of worms.

“It’s our community space - once we start taking ownership for this where do we stop,” she said. “People need to take ownership for their own community.”

The matter was referred to the following finance meeting which was held this past Monday where staff was asked to report further on the project and provide additional options to control littering.

Staff presented committee with four options at the meeting. Committee members decided against installing special recycling containers at 150 locations throughout the city. Instead they opted to eliminate the pilot project from the 2014 budget altogether and requested that the $26,000 in operating funds allocated for the project be directed to an extensive promotion and education program along with a feasibility assessment of a potential dedicated anti-litter enforcement program.

“I don’t think we’re asking too much of anybody to pick up their own mail and any junk mail that goes along with it,” said Rosati. “Option two allows for education as well as enforcement.”

Bevilacqua said he hopes that people will take pride in their community and stop littering at super mailboxes.

“People have to understand we have a certain quality of life in the city and that doesn’t include people throwing stuff on the ground,” he said. “The whole city is stretched to the limit and we’re going to give money to people who can’t do the very thing you’re taught to do in kindergarten? I don’t think you fix the problem by enabling the problem. This is a good time to send a message that we don’t tolerate this type of behaviour in the city.”