Usually, when Toronto City Council sits down to debate the garbage and water budgets for the coming year, it's not such a big deal.
The two budgets are unique in the city's repertoire of services, in that they're not supported by property taxes or other revenue; they're entirely covered by relatively low pay-as-you-flow (or throw) rates. Water rates go up by nine per cent a year to cover the gradual replacement of the city's sewage infrastructure. Garbage rates go up a little or not at all, to keep this city recycling, composting and burying when it comes to refuse.Of course, nothing's usual in the new administration here at Toronto City Hall. And this year, even the lowly garbage rate is controversial.Toronto's budget committee approved recommendations that will see the rate for tossing garbage frozen at 2011 levels next year. But to do it, there will be cuts. Most notably: the city will no longer be collecting extra recycling from homeowners. Right now, if your recycling bin is overflowing, it's acceptable to put out the extra newspapers and pop bottles in clear plastic bags.Next year, you'll have to hang onto that refuse for another two weeks. Or, if extra recycling's a regular thing, go get yourself either a bigger bin from the city, or if your bin is already as big as it gets, a second bin.That will save taxpayers about $500,000, because it will mean that the city no longer needs to employ chaser trucks, to follow automated trucks and collect the extra garbage. As well - and this may be the real crux - the contractors the city hires to pick up garbage in Etobicoke, and next year, west of Yonge Street, charge extra for the service.That means that effectively, the decision council took to contract out garbage was also a decision to incrementally at least, back off of its goal of reaching 70 per cent waste diversion.If council approves the budget, it will mean that for the first time since amalgamation 14 years ago, Toronto will have introduced a policy that makes it more difficult for homeowners to recycle. The budget has also recommended a cut to the number of Environment Days, funding 11 rather than the 44 that currently take place. Currently, every ward in the city has an Environment Day each year, when the city councillor arrives amid piles of compost, new blue and grey bins, and various other city initiatives to help residents be a bit greener. The events are definitely a benefit to local councillors looking to boost their name recognition among ward gardeners. But they've also become an important part of the way the city communicates with its residents and delivers certain services.Neither efficiencies are entirely necessary. The garbage and water budgets don't provide the same pressure on the city's finances as other departments do, in that they're self-sustaining and keep clear of property taxes.The only thing the cuts accomplish is to take a swipe at the most passive, and successful, forays that Torontonians have taken into environmentally-aware behaviour. Perhaps in the long run, that is the point of them.