Stock Photo (editor’s note: these are not a visual representation of the bins the Town of Osoyoos will be providing)

Dale Boyd

Osoyoos Times 

Members of Osoyoos town council expressed dissent, but acknowledged their hands are tied by an agreement with Recycle BC to provide recycling bins to every residence in town — at a roughly $40 per year expense to taxpayers.

The Town of Osoyoos is required to have containers for residents by July 1, as Recycle BC is no longer accepting blue plastic bags for recycling pick-up.

Council voted at a special meeting Feb. 21 to acquire the 240-litre carts through a six-year, rent-to-own agreement with Waste Connections Canada — the current collection contractor for waste services in Osoyoos.

The cost to every residence in Osoyoos is $42 per year, per user for six years with no ability for residents to opt out of the program. However, the town will be funding the first six months of service through reserve funds, so taxpayers won’t be on the hook until 2021.

Mayor Sue McKortoff wondered if residents could use cardboard boxes or their own containers like the rural areas in the Regional District of Okanagan Similkameen (RDOS) for recycling pick-up, but the rules differ within the town boundaries due to the Town of Osoyoos’ contract with Recycle BC.

“They will not support us in going down that route,” said Jared Brounstein, director of operational services for the Town of Osoyoos.

The buy-in and recycling use by regional district residents was high allowing the RDOS to work with Recycle BC to have personal recycling bins or cardboard boxes, he said.

“What (Recycle BC) have come back and told this community is that our recycling use isn’t high enough, and (the town) shall provide a bin to each property owner,” Brounstein said.

Coun. Brian Harvey, the lone vote opposed (Coun. CJ Rhodes was absent), said he didn’t see the connection between recycling levels and the type of bins the town is required to provide to residents.

“What (Recycle BC) is saying is that they want to force people to have recycling bins,” Brounstein said. “The only way we can make sure that every property owner in this community has a bin, is we supply that bin. How we supply that bin is strictly up to us.”

Read more: Town reluctantly renews five-year agreement with Recycle BC

The contract with Recycle BC has the town in a tight spot, with limited options as the deadline for to provide bins is coming up in July.

“In all honesty, as a community, our hands are tied. We went into a contract with Recycle BC for the next, I think, 10 years. We committed to our statement of work, we committed to providing them the services, we’ve committed to this community that we shall provide recycling. If you want to opt out … if that’s something that if this community feels it’s necessary, you want to opt out of recycling, that’s a challenge all on its own. Recycle BC may fight you pretty damn hard,” Brounstein said.

Harvey said many people in town either buy $10 worth of blue bags for the year, or opt out of recycling entirely, and those costs are about to go up for taxpayers.

“They opt out, they don’t recycle, they don’t spend anything. Now we’re telling them they have to, we’re going to tax them on their bill, each year $42? I don’t see it,” Harvey said.

McKortoff agreed with Harvey, adding that “quite frankly, we need to cut down on recycling. We should be reusing and reducing, not bringing out mounds of recycling which then causes further problems.”

Brounstein said he has forwarded many of these concerns to the provincial recycling organization, but the agreement with Recycle BC and the town is rigid.

“I’ve pounded this out with Recycle BC, I have asked all the questions you’re asking me and it basically comes out ‘you shall supply (bins).’ End of discussion,” Brounstein said.

Through renting the town avoids having to maintain, operate and replace the carts, and will own them after six years, but town staff are suggesting keeping the tax rates the same to create a reserve for maintaining and replacing the bins in the future.

Coun. Myers Bennett, referring to an earlier council discussion about water treatment options, noted that local taxpayers and municipal governments often don’t have a choice when it comes to issues under provincial purview.

“These meetings show the taxpayers that, basically, a lot of the time we don’t have a choice,” Bennett said. “We’re getting told by Interior Health there’s manganese (in the water) you have to change, and spend this amount of money. Now it’s the same thing, they’re saying you have to do this and spend this money. It’s a lot of money that the taxpayers are seeing getting spent that’s not in our control.”

Coun. Jim King noted that the town has stalled right up to the deadline of July 1, and have to make a difficult decision.

“We’ve stalled it with two years of discussions. It’s not fair that the government is downloading to us and putting the burden on the taxpayer, but it is what it is,” King said.