The City of Sherbrooke, Quebec has announced that it will bring garbage collection services in-house saving the city $750,000 annually. Currently, city workers represented by CUPE local 2729 collect garbage in the city core only, while private contractors handle the outlying areas.
After comparing the costs, the city came to a simple conclusion: municipal employees can provide the service more cheaply than private companies.The City of Sherbrooke, Quebec has announced that it will bring garbage collection services in-house saving the city $750,000 annually. Currently, city workers represented by CUPE local 2729 collect garbage in the city core only, while private contractors handle the outlying areas.
Earlier, in September 2010, leaked documents gave a first hint of these potential savings. The Mayor committed to conduct a full review to compare the costs, and said he would disclose the results early in 2011.
CUPE has congratulated the mayor for keeping his word and doing the right thing.
The decision by Sherbrooke follows an announcement by the City of Ottawa that by keeping garbage collection in-house rather than using a private company the city saved nearly $5 million dollars over four years. Meanwhile in Vancouver, Mayor Gregor Robertson recently found new respect for sanitation workers when he took the time to walk in the shoes of sanitation workers for two days as part of the CBC television show Make the Politician Work.
- For more information on Sherbrooke’s decision, here’s the news report and the City of Sherbrooke’s news release.