Wednesday, April 05, 2017

Automated Garbage Pick up

Good for CUPE or good for taxpayers?
An idea of what 2 of 3 new bins will look like

I have to admit my memory is a bit foggy on the matter of automated garbage pick-up in the city. If memory serves Council in the past was never really sure it was the right move forward given many unanswered concerns about this method of pick-up.

There was (what I consider) a bogus claim that work place injuries were the issue supporting the need for sanitation workers to play with a joystick rather than do physical labour. Surprisingly, or not, there were no stats before the addition of the green bins, which arguably have made the job more difficult. That I would add, is the result of ill-conceived and executed changes by previous staffers.

The last time I remember this being before council Bestwick put forward and got support for the idea of only doing half of Nanaimo. In fact, that was actually a motion supported by council, but for some reason never acted upon by staff. (This is Nanaimo after all).

Then at some previous meeting the whole matter was put on hold, and I was of the understanding the whole matter would be coming before the public again before any decisions were to be made.

Clearly I was wrong, and we know have a secret decision made which is launching Nanaimo taxpayers into the world of automated garbage pick up.

I have to wonder what some folk are going to do to find a storage place for three of these beauties, and how much fun wheeling them to and from the curb weekly will be, especially in winter.

What possible reason for going in-camera?

Can't possibly involve 'land-labour-litigation' ...

The old chestnut for going in-camera was land-labour-litigation. Well, for the life of me I can not imagine how any of these would apply to a decision to automate garbage pick up in Nanaimo.

It would have no effect on CUPE either way. The status quo means we need all the jobs currently being provided, and the automated system will require at the very least the same number of employees. So what the 'labour' stake is in all this is just another one of those 'made in Nanaimo' stories.

It would be different if  council were perhaps considering putting the entire garbage collection business out to a public tender, which could impact union jobs, but that was not the case.

So, the only possible reason I can think of for council not bringing this back into open, with ample time for the public to have input is because they simply don't want to be held accountable, which shouldn't really come as a surprise anymore.


allvoices

3 comments:

  1. I would like to know how the elderly and mobility-challenged citizens of Nanaimo are going to manage to get these "cans" out to the curb, let alone if we had to deal with the amount of snowfall that we did last year, and we are going to be charged automatically for them on our Utility bills without our prior agreement just like the green bins.


    What do we do with the existing old green bins? The City should offer to pick them up or they will be finding them scattered throughout the City on the sides of the road.

    Have they thought about any of that? Apparently not....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. They'd be nicer than grocery carts to hold the belongings of the homeless if they wash them out?
      Well just a joke that's actually true, creative disposal available. WHO is voting to keep all things, even normal business away from the eyes or ears of the employers here! The people who purchased via tax dollars all those smelly maggot filled inconvenient bins for citizens to clean bi weekly in the summer need to be transparent! Quit toying with the public!

      Delete
  2. They have to have a Plan B for seniors and people with disabilities.

    ReplyDelete

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