There's been another change of plans to curbside garbage collection following a report from city administration. The report explained that due to the new criteria put forward by Councillor Chris Warren's motion last month, 65% of the city would not be able to be transitioned to curbside collection, leaving no reason to go forward with a city wide rollout.

The motion that halted the program in its tracks was passed at the start of the month following heavy criticism from the community. At the time, Warren said he wanted to address concerns that were being raised in the community but was not opposed to the overall program.

"Effective August 1st, 2017, that challenged areas identified by city engineering for continued alley pick up service be expanded to include the following criteria; blocks where more than 20% of homes do not have front street driveways, blocks where there is an excess of on street parking, blocks where the road widths are defined as narrow streets, blocks where on street parking lanes do not exist and blocks where more than 20% of the homes contain retaining walls and are more than one step from the yard to the curb."

Municipal Operations Manager Darrin Stephanson says the new criteria was so restrictive that people who had been on curbside collection for years without any problems, would be removed and very few new areas could be added. In fact, when all of the criteria was applied, only 35% of the city could actually be moved to curbside but it wouldn't be very efficient.

"Because of the spotty nature, it wouldn't allow us to create runs with our circuits and we'd end up driving a lot of side streets to double back."

The whole point of curbside collection was to become more efficient and when combined with bi-weekly collection, significant financial savings were expected that would then allow for further investment in the landfill replacement project. But in light of the findings, city administration suggested that the program be called off, heavily amended or if implemented the way the motion suggested, additional expenses would be incurred.

Councillor Warren became agitated by the report saying he was offended by the tone and wording used when Moose Jaw was compared to the other cities in the province.  The report said Moose Jaw was the only major city left to make a transition to curbside collection and that the next lowest transition was in Regina at more than 60%.  Warren was also critical of the report suggesting only some of the criteria be implemented or the whole thing be called off, saying council approved a motion and it was up to administration to carry it out.

At one point during the meeting, Warren said he wished he could go back in time and cancelled the whole thing, then start from scratch.

Administration also showed their frustration with City Manager Matt Noble asking why council second guesses every report that their staff bring to the table, questioning if councillors trust them or not. He said the staff put a lot of work into the original report and this subsequent report with all of the information based on fact and science.

The lengthy meeting saw long pauses with councillors unsure of how to proceed.  Mayor Fraser Tolmie broke the stalemate with a new motion that will see Areas 1 and 2, that have already switched to curbside collection, be reviewed and used as a pilot project of sorts. The information will then be used to tweak the overall program as needed, before rolling it out the rest of the city.

The motion was passed although no timelines for that transition have been given. While the review is being conducted, Areas 1 and 2 will continue to have curbside collection.