Toronto City Council voted last year to contract out a large percentage of the city’s garbage collection. Private collection began this August. In preparation, CUPE Local 416 created a complaints hotline for disgruntled customers in an attempt to undermine the private service. Indeed, the private service did get off to a rocky start.
During the controversy, I wrote a column for the National Post in which I argued that the level of scrutiny the private service was receiving was part of the reason why the service would succeed. Sure enough, a few days before my column ran, the City announced that the private provider had met its performance guidelines, and would not receive fines.
While the critics may have an ideological axe to grind, Torontonians are now saving $11 million per year in garbage collection. Hopefully this successful example will lead Toronto to follow Winnipeg, and outsource all of their garbage collection.
