By Cecilia Nasmith
On Day One of Northumberland County council's final review of budget issues in advance of finalizing a 2020 budget, eight departments made presentations and only three issues arose that will require further information.
All of the issues came from the waste department presentation made by transportation, waste and facilities director Mo Pannu, and all will be investigated prior to a Day Two review Thursday.
One is further investigation of a $131,000 item to increase staff hours at their two busiest Community Recycling Centres in Bewdley and Brighton. The budgeted cost for this could stay the same if the hours of operations at these two sites were reduced.
Another is a cost analysis of increasing tipping fees and bag-tag costs. These have not increased since 2013 and 2007 respectively, and with an anticipated reduction in bag-tag purchases because of the new green-bin compostables collection, Pannu's thought it was time. His suggestion is that the cost per bag tag rise to $3.75 from $2.75, which would bring in an estimated $785,000 more.
As for tipping fees, Northumberland's are lower than those in some other municipalities, which might encourage those residents close to the boundaries to make the trip and use Northumberland's facilities. The suggestion is that fees rise to $125 per tonne from $115, bringing in an extra $220,000. Then there's the surcharge rate for those who cannot or will not sort out their waste – this would double from $125 per tonne to $250, bringing in an extra $135,000.
The third matter was raised by Warden Bob Sanderson, who suggested a commercial rate at the dump - “maybe $150 a tonne, and I don't think you would have any significant pushback. But it could make a significant revenue difference.”
Waste seems to be the department with the most negative feedback, Pannu said, and the department has faced a number of challenges with such recent innovations as the two-stream recycling system, the addition of the green bin, implementing a styrofoam-diversion program and implementing year-round household-waste and e-waste diversion programs.
Waste collectors make 39,000 pick-up stops each week, collecting 44,801 tonnes of waste (of which 27,648 is landfilled). Of the 17,152 tonnes of waste diverted from the landfill, 15,352 tonnes would be processed at Grafton's Material Recycling Facility.
Three significant budget pressures this year include declining MRF revenues and skyrocketing volumes of leachate to be taken care of at the Brighton landfill and the now-closed Eagleson landfill.
The third is the cost of the newly initiated waste-collection system, with escalating fuel costs that are rising faster than inflation as well as chronic labour shortage and steep insurance costs.
One issue raised that council did not question is the replacement of one of the department's 30 pieces of mobile equipment – a 2007 backhoe. The department wants to replace it with a new or quality used front-end loader which, they feel, will do a more efficient job for its work at the Bewdley CRC. The estimated $200,000 cost will be financed by $120,000 from reserves and $80,000 from the tax levy.
Council expects to be in a position to pass the budget Thursday, which chief administrative officer
Jennifer Moore said this will wind up seven or eight months of work. The initial draft in the fall had a 5.82% increase, but their target was 3%.
One piece of good news she shared is that the province backed off on some of the cuts the county expected to see, “and we actually will be receiving a bit more funding in some areas than we had anticipated.
They have also brainstormed to find such efficiencies as reducing print and copying costs and reducing the times they include meals for staff-training sessions.
