Sanitary landfill fees will be going up in each of the next three years following unanimous support for the increase by Yorkton Council at its regular meeting on Monday, Apr. 23.
The City of Yorkton’s Environmental Services Department has completed a review of our current Sanitary Landfill Rate Fees Bylaw, explained Aron Hershmiller, Assistant Director of Environmental Services with the City, adding the current rates have been in place since 2015.
“The Ministry of Environment is beginning to enforce their regulations, and communities province-wide are being forced to meet more stringent environmental guidelines. In order to meet these more stringent regulations, the City of Yorkton has made significant capital investments at the landfill of over $5 million, with the construction of a new engineered lined cell, with a leachate collection system, and a roadway network will be completed in 2018, with more engineered cells to be constructed in subsequent years,” he said, adding new engineered lined cells are required with a leachate collection system (leachate is the liquid produced in a landfill from the decomposition of waste within the landfill).
Hershmiller said Yorkton’s rates have always been comparable with other cities.
“Historically, Yorkton’s landfill rates have been below the majority of Saskatchewan cities and many western Canadian cities,” he said, “Administration assessed three different scenarios to come to our conclusion.”
To begin with Administration completed a landfill rate review of 30 western Canadian cities’ 2017 tonnage rates (from B.C., Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba). The average in-city rate proved to be $69/tonne and $90.50/tonne outside city, compared to the City of Yorkton’s current rate of $55/tonne in-city and $80/tonne outside city. This review also looked at minimum entrance fee rates, with the average minimum rate of $13.25/load below 500kg in weight with the lowest rate at $2.00/load and the highest at $25.00/load. This compares to Yorkton’s current rate in 2017, of $6.50/load.
The second scenario Administration utilized for this review was using a Stantec Engineering Amortization cost calculator document. This document indicated the breakeven tipping fees for Residential Refuse in the City of Yorkton should be $75.00 /tonne. To calculate this rate, we included $26 million of projected capital and construction expenses over the next 20 years, said Hershmiller.
The third scenario Administration reviewed was utilizing the City of Yorkton’s historical landfill data (last five year tonnage averages 2013-2017). They used this information with 10 years of projected capital expenses of $12.5 million. This scenario also proved that the City should increase fees to the suggested rates in order for the landfill to sustain itself as a self-functioning landfill.
“To offset these future expenditures, administration is proposing a new three year rate increase schedule. The proposed increases have been reviewed and accepted by the Environmental Committee at the Mar. 20, 2018 meeting,” said Hershmiller.
Highlights of the new proposed rate structure are as follows:
*Increases to the flat entrance fee from $6.50 to $8.00 in 2018 with $1 increases the following two years. This also includes cars. Cars previously paid a $2.00 /entrance fee.
*Increases to commercial and residential rates by $10.00/tonne in 2018, then $5/tonne increase in 2019 and an additional $5/tonne increase in 2020.
*We will no longer have two rates for outside city clients. The communities currently under contract pay $80.00/tonne for residential refuse and communities without a contract are currently paying double the rate. The city will no longer have any contracts so therefore there will be only one outside city residential rate.
*Increases to the Outside City Residential Rate by $17.50/tonne in 2018, then $7.50/tonne in 2019 and an additional $7.50/tonne in 2020. The Outside City Rate is calculated by taking the in-city rate and multiplying that rate by a factor of 1.5. This factor is consistent with our outside city water rates we currently charge.
*Other outside city rates for all other products follow the same 1.5 factor from the in-city rate.
