Concern over $5 Sudbury landfill user fee

A Sudbury city councillor says an internal memo about a new landfill user fee leaked to the public has prompted concern.

Several Sudbury councillors told CTVNewsNorthernOntario.ca in video interviews they were shocked to learn about a new $5 gate fee being implemented July 1 at the landfill through correspondence from staff.

Ward 5 Coun. Mike Parent and Ward 7 Coun. Natalie Labbee said they weren't aware of the change when they approved the city's 2024 budget.

Parent and Labbee both said staff had proposed the new fee, but it was rejected by council.

Parent said he went back to look at the 670 page budget document and found the new fee on page 633.

"In 2024, what appears to be is that it was bundled into a lot of fees without being explicit. So I don't think my peers are aware, like I wasn't, that this was included," he said, adding a new business case was not included as part of the discussion.

But a spokesperson for the city said councillors had been informed.

"Staff identified changes in service level and fees throughout the process leading up to the publication of the draft budget," city spokesperson Kelli Sheppard told CTV News in an email.

"During the four-week period councillors had to review the draft document, staff provided a weekly set of answers to questions councillors asked based on their review of the budget document."

Sheppard said the introduction of a gate fee was addressed in Appendix A of Budget 2024-2025 Questions and Answers provided by staff on Nov. 23.

Greater Sudbury is updating its solid waste management master plan and is looking to get public input. (Photo from video)

The document posted online shows the fee was to raise about $317,500 this year and $649,000 next year.

Labbee said she thought the fee was a dead issue when it wasn’t approved by council.

"I remember asking the chair of finance, Coun. (Deb) McIntosh, at the time, what happens to these business cases if they are not brought forward and she said 'If they're not brought forward, they go to die,'" Labbee said.

"So it was very much a surprise."

But Sheppard said that’s not quite how it works.

"Our budget process calls for a councillor to move a motion so that a business case gets included in that year's budget,” she said.

“If no motion is presented for a published business case, it is not automatically denied. It simply means council took no action on it."

"In that case, the idea can be reintroduced in future periods,” Sheppard added.

“This fee was included as part of the base budget so we could produce a draft budget that met council's budget directions."

Concern about barriers

Labbee said when the business case was presented in 2023, council expressed concern that it would create an extra barrier for people who needed to dispose of garbage.

"Part of the discussion, initially, when this business case first came up was the concern of council that if we're making it more difficult for people to access the landfill," she said.

"In addition to long line ups at times to access the landfill, then we're going to be seeing more and more garbage in the backroads and the trails, and we’re trying to preserve our environment."

Parent said he didn't want the issue to become a public spectacle, so when he received the communication from staff, he advised he would be putting forth a motion at council to pause the implementation of the new fee.

Labbee said the city decided to halt further communication on the subject following the proposed motion, but someone shared the information with the public and she doesn't know who it was.

Residents upset

She said people are contacting her through social media, phone calls and emails expressing they are upset about this new fee.

"I think staff work really hard to support us and they're doing their best," Parent added.

"For me, it really was the matter of why wasn't it presented as a business case?"

But Labbee said the incident has caused negative reaction from the public toward council.

"It's also undermining the opinion people have of council in general and our capability of understanding and comprehending information that is presented to us," she said.

"Some people are very critical of the fact that council should be going through the budget with a fine-toothed comb, but it's really not the job of council to be auditors and auditing line-by-line items. It really is the onus on the staff to bring forward projects and considerations that are going to impact the budget that are out of the ordinary."

Complicated process to remove fee

Because council approved the fee as part of the city's budget, Parent said the process to undo it is a little more complicated.

"We'll have to first start with a reconsideration, so I'll need support from two-thirds of members of council to bring this reconsideration. And then the ask is going to be to remove this fee so that it's not just a pause," he said.

"It really is going to be an ask that this fee is removed from the budget for this year. And if council wants to debate this for 2025 or to future, that's always an option."

The next council meeting is scheduled for June 25.

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