Garbage cans could be coming to some of the city’s busiest transit stops.
At Monday’s council meeting, Coun. Jay Fallis brought forward an inquiry motion asking staff to look into the costs and logistics of bringing garbage cans to the city’s 15 “most heavily travelled bus stops.”
Fallis said his constituents have raised concern about garbage piling up around the bus stops and he said providing receptacles could be a way to help make the city more green.
“This actually came to me a couple of times (through) the election and after, around there being a variety of different structures in the city where garbage does pile up with people sitting there,” Fallis said. “It's a very small thing, but I think it would have some big impacts.”
Coun. David Campbell agreed.
“I think this makes sense, particularly a report so we can look at the logistics of it. I realize there's going to be costs involved,” Campbell said. “I've had folks mention to me that they think it's a little strange that we offer shelters, but there's no receptacles in it.”
Campbell added he hopes to see consideration for containers with smaller openings to discourage larger scale dumping at local bus stops.
Coun. Ralph Cipolla, however, asked whether garbage cans could be put directly into buses instead.
Ian Sugden, the city's general manager of development services and engineering, explained that buses do currently offer patrons an opportunity to dispose of their trash.
“When (residents) get on the bus they are able to deposit their waste into a bag that is on the bus, and our transit operator will then remove it at the end of the day and dispose of it,” Sugden said. “That was done purposely to avoid the expense of having garbage cans that need to be emptied all around the city, along the entire transit route.”
“Why go to the expense of this report and staff time when it's already been taken care of by the transit system?” responded Cipolla.
Fallis replied that the bags on buses are not adequate.
“I think the challenge is what's on paper versus what happens in reality,” Fallis responded. “You still have people leaving garbage there and they get on the bus. They're not thinking about the extra effort of bringing it with them.”
Council directed staff to prepare a report on garbage cans for local bus stops by June, with any financial considerations to be forwarded to the 2024 budget deliberations.
