The city is preparing to contract out one-quarter of black cart pickup services across Calgary by 2022

A private company will take over garbage collection in parts of west and northwest Calgary by 2022.

The city opened proposals from companies hoping to do the work Monday as it moves ahead on a pilot project to contract out one-quarter of black cart pickup services. Council approved the project earlier this year, and proponents of the move say it will show whether the city can save money by moving some waste collection work to the private sector.

There are 41 neighbourhoods included in the pilot, according to the city, stretching from Panorama Hills to Valley Ridge and including the entirety of Wards 1 and 2. The pilot area goes as far south as Discovery Ridge, and it includes Ward 6 communities bounded by Highway 1 to the north and Sarcee Trail to the east.

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Communities in Ward 4 west and north of Nose Hill Park are also a part of the pilot, plus a handful of neighbourhoods in Ward 3.

The councillors who represent those areas — Ward Sutherland, Joe Magliocca, Sean Chu, Jyoti Gondek and Jeff Davison — were among 10 councillors in total who sponsored a motion to develop the pilot.

But Mayor Naheed Nenshi said there wasn’t “political” logic behind picking the neighbourhoods that will see a change.

“Basically, we had to do one quadrant, and just based on where the landfill sites are and where the routes are, the northwest/west end of the city made the most sense,” he said.

The mayor added that contracting out in those communities will affect about 15 trucks.

“We’re just at the very beginning of a very complicated process … We’re taking a very thoughtful approach to this to say, ‘Let’s see what the market has to say first — let’s see if there’s some real cost savings.'”

Only black cart pickup will change under the project. Blue and green cart service will be the same.

The contract, which lasts seven years with a possible extension, is expected to be awarded by early 2021. Privatized service in the pilot neighbourhoods would start in 2022.

Last year, a consultant’s report recommended maintaining a public system for garbage collection, saying an analysis showed potential risks to service and lower cost savings than anticipated.

That report said contracting out a third of garbage collection across Calgary could save as much as $850,000 per year, but “reliability and safety” in customer experience could suffer.

Source CREB NOW - Calgary Herald Sept 2020