The workers that provide snow clearing services, along with all other work required by the town, are unionized under CUPE 2618-03. They work all year round ensuring that our town runs smoothly. Their contract stipulates that contracting out cannot be the reason their jobs are cut or reduced. This means that, if the town contracts out snow clearing, they will still be responsible for every worker’s full wage. This means that, no matter how “cheap” the private company’s service seems, it will always be more than what we’re paying now.
Even if the contract didn’t exist, this shift to a private company wouldn’t save money—not in the long run. There are hundreds of examples of contracting out costing the town, city, or municipality more in the long run, but even just focusing on the Atlantic region, it becomes clear privatizing snow clearing isn’t a good idea.
- Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), Nova Scotia:
Parking enforcement had been previously contracted out by the HRM in an effort to reduce municipal expenditures. However, in 2017, they decided to bring parking enforcement back in-house, using their own employees to provide the service, and saved $100,000 a year, or about 8%.
- Paradise, Newfoundland and Labrador:
Both snow clearing and waste removal services had been contracted out by the town of Paradise. When they worked up a cost-estimate for providing these services in-house, they found that they could do both for half the waste removal contract alone—valued at $2,000,000 annually. They ended the contract.
- Conception Bay South (CBS), Newfoundland and Labrador:
When CBS brought their waste collection back in-house after years of contracting out, they saved an estimated $230,000 per year.
- Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia:
After dropping their primary private contractor for snow removal, Port Hawkesbury was able to decrease their related costs $216,000, or about 62%.
The evidence is overwhelming. Contracting out does not save the town money. All it does is line the pockets of private contractors—and uses our tax money to do it!
Say no to contracting out.