The City of Vancouver has said it will opt in to a controversial new recycling program – but only if it can renegotiate a contract that so far has not been up for discussion, council stated today (September 13).
"The so-called offer, the ultimatum offered by MMBC, is very onerous," Councillor Geoff Meggs told Business in Vancouver.
The province has tasked Multi Materials BC (MMBC), an industry-run, non-profit organization, to implement new legislation requiring businesses to take responsibility for the cost and recycling logistics of the paper and packaging it puts into consumers' hands.
However, small business groups and B.C. municipalities have complained that MMBC has moved too fast, have not done enough consultation and have pushed both businesses and local governments to sign agreements without enough information about the cost, terms and conditions.
Vancouver city council convened a closed-door meeting yesterday to discuss the issue. Today's statement announced that Vancouver will contract its current recycling services to MMBC, but only after renegotiating the current contract being offered.
Council also agreed that Mayor Gregor Robertson would write a letter to Environment Minister Mary Polak outlining the concerns about the lack of consultation, that the quality of recycling service might decline as the program ramps up, that recycling rates may go down, and that taxpayers may be dinged if the rate MMBC has calculated to cover the program is too low.
Municipalities have until September 16 to choose one of three options. They can contract their current in-house recycling services to MMBC and receive a portion of a total of $60 million in financial incentives for signing up.
Municipalities who decide not to contract to MMBC can get out of the recycling business altogether and let MMBC do it for them, or continue to operate their existing programs, but not receive the financial incentive offered by MMBC.
The City of Vancouver will also ask Environment Minister Mary Polak to delay the September 16 deadline.
The City of Prince George, City of Pitt Meadows and Regional District of Fraser Fort-George (RDFFG) have already said no to MMBC's offer. That means MMBC will take over the recycling programs for those jurisdictions.
"There's still not a lot of certainty over what the expectations are over what MMBC would have of us in delivering the service … We didn't think it was prudent to gamble with taxpayers dollars," said Jim Martin, chief administrative officer for RDFFG.
He added that the contract offered is heavily weighted in MMBC's favour.
Given RDFFG's concerns over the gaps in information and costs, Martin said the regional district will be closely watching MMBC's roll-out of its recycling program.
MMBC has also faced complaints from small-business owners who complain that the process has been confusing and that the program comes with steep administrative time burdens that have not been adequately explained. Under the system, businesses must report to MMBC the weight and type of every kind of paper and packaging material they produce.
MMBC will also not be able to tell businesses what fees they may expect to pay under the new system until November 2013.
After pressure from business advocates and Polak, MMBC now says that businesses making less than $750,000 in gross sales do not have to report. MMBC will also do consultation sessions throughout the fall.
The new system is supposed to be fully in place by May 2014.
Look out for BIV's full story on September 17.
@jenstden
