The City of Prince George is getting out of the commercial garbage collection business, redirecting resources to tackle the City’s illegal dumping problem.
Manager of Solid Waste Services Sean LeBrun says there are currently about 200 commercial accounts serviced twice a week.
“So that’s one person twice a week for a full day to be able to go out and pick litter in the downtown core, to pull a fridge out of Ginter’s; just to have someone available which currently we don’t have.”
LeBrun says he anticipates the 14 hours of staff time freed up by the move will make considerable progress cleaning up illegal dumping.
He notes that many other cities the size of Prince George leave commerical collection to the private sector.
“There isn’t going to be any job loss, no drop in service for these accounts they will still be able to get their garbage collected, they’ll just have somebody else picking it up other than the City of Prince George.”
The change will cost the City about $45,000 in lost revenue, which will be absorbed by utility increases over the next three years.
Affected commercial businesses will be receiving mail notifying them of the change immediately, the last service date is expected to be September 2nd.