Solid waste tipping fees are set to go up again at the Waste Transfer Station after council gave first three readings to a related bylaw amendment at the Dec. 17 council meeting.
Under the new bylaw, the fee for landfill waste will rise to $170 (from $155) to match the fees charged at the Squamish landfill; fees for loads with more than 25-per-cent contamination will rise to $375 a tonne (from $325); fees for biosolids will rise to $150/tonne (from $140); fees for clean, unchipped wood waste will rise to $80/tonne (from $30); fees for dirty wood waste will rise to $135/tonne (from $80); and fees for bulky items like furniture will go up to $170/tonne (from $155).
"Tipping fees need to be adjusted from time to time in response [to] changes for the solid waste program, and the last time the tipping fees were increased was in 2018," said manager of transportation and waste management Andrew Tucker, in a presentation to council.
"Differential tipping fees are used for different types of waste that we receive down at the transfer station or compost facility to create an incentive for waste reduction based on that waste that's coming in, and increasing the disposal costs and tipping fees must be balanced with the risk of illegal dumping," he said.
FIVE-YEAR FINANCIAL PLAN GETS FIRST READINGS
Council also gave first three readings to the 2020-2024 Five-Year Financial Plan bylaw at the Dec. 17 meeting.
The bylaw sets out the proposed revenues, expenditures and transfers for the coming years, and guides all municipal operating and capital spending.
The budget is to be based on a 2.8-per-cent property tax increase in 2020, along with two-per-cent increases to sewer, water parcel and solid waste fees.
The 2020-2024 proposed projects list includes 164 projects, with a total possible spend of $41 million in 2020 (including up to $10 million carried over from 2019).
The total municipal budget is worth $90.4 million next year, up from $87 million in 2019.
Read more here: www.piquenewsmagazine.com/whistler/whistler-budget-guidelines-presented-to-council/Content?oid=14745343.
Find Whistler's budget documents at www.whistler.ca/budget.
2019 BUDGET AMENDMENT
Meanwhile, council also gave first three readings to an amendment to the current 2019-2023 five-year financial plan bylaw at the Dec. 17 meeting.
The amendment covers $61,000 in cost overruns related to 2019 road upgrade projects, as well as a budgeting error related to wildfire protection work.
The additional costs for the road upgrades were due to expanding traffic control and additional paving, said director of finance Carlee Price.
"Both in Function Junction and in Spring Creek there were significant [numbers] of pedestrians, and in the case of Spring Creek, student traffic, that needed to be accommodated, so those [traffic control] actions incurred additional costs," Price said.
"Plus we discovered in the course of this work that additional areas required paving at the judgment of the project manager, so that work was done, expanding the overall cost of the project."
Staff plan to avoid similar overruns in 2020 by "better planning for traffic management and quantities of asphalt required" for road upgrades, according to a report to council.
As well, grants included in the budget worth a combined $900,000 for a wildfire fuel-thinning project "will not materialize," according to the report, and were included in the 2019 budget amounts by mistake.
"The gross spend on this project was actually below expectations, and it's simply a function of those grants not materializing that the budget has run over the allotted amount," Price said.
"And I'd also note here that if we combine 2018 and 2019, the spend across this program across those two years is well within budget, so [it's] just a reallocation between the 2018 and 2019 to the tune of about $405,000."
The report chalks the error up to a miscommunication between the finance department and the project manager.
"Internal processes have since been strengthened and this type of error should not occur again," the report reads.
The amended bylaw will reallocate the necessary funds to the two projects—$61,000 for road upgrades and $405,000 for wildfire protection—from the general operating and capital reserves.
