Saskatoon council moves forward on weekly garbage pickup despite COVID-19

Despite an earlier announcement from Saskatoon city administration, garbage collection in the city will switch over to weekly pickup as soon as possible.

On Tuesday, the City of Saskatoon sent out a Facebook message stating that civic garbage collection would be bi-weekly until further notice. 

Administration said it made the decision in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and didn't want to add extra workers who might spread the disease.

However, at a special council meeting on Wednesday, many councillors registered their surprise at the decision, saying that they had not been informed.

In a split decision, council voted that weekly garbage pickup be implemented as quickly as possible and that administration bring forward a report on the decision's financial implications.

"We have learned through this whole process that at the start of a state of emergency, we needed to be nimble, needed to react quickly," said Councillor Darren Hill, who made the motion.

"That immediate state of emergency no longer exists."

Councillors noted that garbage collection, including recycling and composting, has been a major point of contention in the city for many years.

In December 2019, council voted to reverse a decision to make garbage collection a monthly utility.

In September, a plan to move the city to year-round bi-weekly garbage collection was deferred until a city-wide composting program is brought in, likely by 2023.

Given attention the issue has received, not to mention that council voted in this year's budget to continue with weekly pickup in the summertime, many councillors felt uncomfortable with the decision to change the service level.

"Once you do this once, it opens up precedence for, really, anything to come on the table," said councillor Troy Davies.

"It's not just garbage pickup. I think once this decision is made, and we're going to overturn a budget process that took plenty of days ... now we're talking dollars and cents."

Some councillors worried about the smell that would be generated, as well as pest issues, if garbage was not picked up on a weekly basis.

Other councillors felt the issue should have been voted on at council's regular meeting later this month, after a formal report was written by administration.

City manager Jeff Jorgenson said the city will now start hiring more staff to deal with the weekly garbage pickup and begin the process of training.

He said the system would likely not be set up until the end of May, pushing weekly garbage pickup back by roughly a month.