Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

Yellowknife (Nov 23/05) - Yellowknife business and condo owners are scratching their heads over City Hall's decision to scrap commercial garbage pick-up from its contract with Kavanaugh Brothers waste removers.

A Kavanaugh Bros. garbage truck does its work in the Kam Lake industrial park. Driver of the truck (inset) is Des Wourms. Yellowknife businesses may be left to scramble for individual garbage pick-up contracts if the city dumps its agreement with Kavanaugh Bros. - Chris Woodall/NNSL photo

Yellowknifer contacted several major business, condo, and apartment owners in town and found none who had any clue the city was cutting them out of the contract, even though the city has been handling the service for 30 years.

It led many to wonder just when either the city or Kavanaugh planned to inform them about the change of plans. The city-provided service will come to end Dec. 31, less than six weeks from now.

The decision means approximately 500 commercial and government users will have to make their own arrangements with Kavanaugh or take their garbage to the dump themselves.

City council approved a five-year contract with Kavanaugh Brothers waste removers, Nov. 14, but for single-family units only.

"How charming," said Jennifer Marchant, general manager of Centre Square Mall.

"This is extremely short notice, particularly being the Christmas/New Year period. We have not been advised."

Under the old contract with Kavanaugh, the city charges commercial users a monthly fee of $11 per 1,000 square-foot of office space. Apartment and condo owners are charged a monthly fee of $11 per unit.

Greg Kehoe, director of public works, said now that commercial users have been cut loose, the fee will be scrapped. He said some businesses have been consulted, while others haven't.

"Not everyone has been contacted," he said.

Kehoe said the city will host an open house Dec. 15 to discuss the changes, plus a notice will be attached to water bills for the month. He said there would also be radio ads and a brochure.

When asked why the city went this route, he said it's common practice down south.

"It makes good sense to have the commercial businesses contract out or, if they so choose, they can take their waste to the landfill and get charged a tipping fee there," he said.

"It actually gives them more flexibility."

The city charges a tipping fee of $65 a tonne of solid waste brought to the dump, and $30 a tonne of cardboard.

Last March, officials told city council that residential users were being charged more than double - $570,768 in total - than what it cost the city to handle their garbage.

They concluded that commercial and multi-family units, meanwhile were being grossly undercharged. The city found that handling commercial bins of two, four, or six cubic yard capacity was costing them $534,618, but only generating $368,148 in revenue.

City Hall believes its new contract with Kavanaugh will only cost ratepayers $320,000 next year.

Marchant believes the commercial sector will probably have to pay more for garbage pick-up now that they have to make their own arrangements. She said Centre Square and the Northern Heights condominium pays more than $4,000 a month right now.

"Kavanaugh is the only one that has the trucks, right? They're the only ones with the big dumpsters and the big bins," said Marchant.

"They'll still be contracted for exactly the same pick-up.

"The only thing that I presume will change is the price, and there's been no assurances or introduction letter from either the city or Kavanaugh to commercial businesses," Marchant said.

Ray Decorby, owner of Polar Developments, with several buildings in town, said the city's claim for "more flexibility" would make more sense in a larger city where competition for garbage services exist, but not here.

"If (Kavanaugh) wants four times what the city was normally paying him to do, that would leave us pretty hamstrung," said Decorby.

Yellowknife's Chamber of Commerce did not comment.