Canada/Gaspé takes over partial management of waste collection

The Town of Gaspé wants to regulate the prices paid by businesses and institutions for waste collection and transportation. A number of them have complained to the municipality after seeing their bill double or even triple in two years.

A resolution was passed at Monday evening's municipal council meeting advising Matrec that the City will take over the management of collection and transportation in January 2025.

For the past 12 years, the City has let the contractors responsible for garbage collection and transportation in the commercial sector bill businesses and institutions directly, and not just the Municipality, as is the case for the residential sector.

Everything was fine until the last few years, when some merchants told us they were paying double or even triple what they were paying a year or two ago. So the bill exploded for no apparent reason.

A quote from Daniel Côté, Mayor of Gaspé

In practice, Matrec will continue to collect and transport garbage, but will not directly charge each business and institution a monthly bill. This billing will be done on the tax notice, commonly known as the municipal tax bill, as is the case for the residential sector.

It will be handled under the municipal contract, so we're going to reduce the costs for everyone, and by the end of our contract, it will be the current costs that have been forecast. This should enable merchants to reduce their bills enormously," adds Mayor Côté.

The city has yet to decide whether to go back to tender or to acquire its own fleet of trucks for waste collection and transportation, in order to better manage costs.

Calculations are made to determine what is the most cost-effective in the short, medium and long term for citizens, but buying trucks for a Régie intermunicipale des matièBut buying trucks for a Régie intermunicipale des matiè res résiduelles has a cost, and maintaining the fleet takes staff, so all that has to be studied," concludes the mayor of Gaspé.

Ultimately, it's up to the municipalities on the board of directors of the Régie intermunicipale de traitement des matières résiduelles de la Gaspésie to decide. The Régie comprises the Côte-de-Gaspé and Rocher-Percé RCMs.

Matrec's contract for the collection and transportation of residual and recyclable materials expires at the end of 2025.

Source: ici.radio-canada.ca