Saskatoon council's decision on trash wasn't wrong, but the tone of the debate was

It took Saskatoon city council sixteen hours to deliberate the 2019 City of Saskatoon budget, which resulted in a 4.4 per cent property tax increase.

Property tax increases in Saskatoon have been skyrocketing over the last decade, but that's not the main problem. The fact that we're now paying separately for a utility that should be covered by our property taxes is bizarre, but also not the main problem.

It was the tone and dialogue of the deliberations that is the main problem.

I would just remind council that we've had this report for six months.- Mayor Charlie Clark said during meeting

For example, after listening to question after question from council members about details they really should have educated themselves on before the meeting, the normally mild-mannered Mayor Charlie Clark had to finally say something.

"I would just remind council that we've had this report for six months," Clark finally erupted during the evening meeting, several hours deep into this painful exercise.

'Shell game'

At the same meeting Saskatoon city councillors determined residents should pay for garbage collection via a utility bill based on the size of our garbage bin. We'll get three choices: small, medium and large. The decision came after 18 months of administrative research, reporting and debates.

This is a tax hike in every way, shape and form. You simply cannot increase property taxes and charge an additional fee that used to be included in those property taxes without calling it a tax increase.

Coun. Ann Iwanchuk proposed using money from a provincial recycling fund to reduce the tax increase. Coun. Zach Jeffries rightly referred to the proposal as a "shell game." Iwanchuk was not amused.

"It's extremely offensive to be using those words in these chambers," Iwanchuk said.

Not really, considering they're totally accurate.

Returning councillor Bev Dubois was outraged over the inclusion of $150,000 in the budget for a new employee to further the City of Saskatoon's efforts to reduce greenhouse gases, which she claimed she didn't know about. "It's not good governance and it's not leadership," said Dubois.

"I guess it's my turn to be offended," replied Coun. Mairin Loewen, who along with Coun. Sarina Gersher indicated that it was indeed good governance and implied that perhaps Dubois should have done her homework.

Councillor Darren Hill wants re-vote

Never to be outdone, Ward 1 Coun. Darren Hill later announced he wanted to rescind his vote, cast only a week before, in favour of billing garbage collection as a utility. His flip-flop could nix the entire plan, given the original vote was six-to-five in favour of a monthly bill, and send city council back to the budget deliberation table.

Meanwhile, city council opted to include future organics collection in our property taxes. That's right, garbage collection is now a separate utility, but our eventual organic garbage collection will be included in our property taxes.

For the record, this split-fee model went against city hall's recommendations and doesn't exist anywhere else in Canada, other than maybe one city in British Columbia. What could possibly go wrong?

For a city council so recently infused with fresh voices, and with a fresh leader at the helm, we can and should expect better than this. It's not so much the decision they made, which makes sense when you look at it. Why should the single elderly lady across the street have to subsidize the family next door with brand new twins and hundreds of pounds of dirty diapers in the trash every month?

Even more nonsensical is the way this has been rolled out over the past four years.

Reminiscent of 2010's great curbside recycling debate, this thing has been dragging on for what feels like ever. For example, why were Saskatoon's residential black bins outfitted with bar codes in 2014, to the tune of $1.2 million? It's questions like that which evoke further questions about yet another property tax increase.

This issue requires leadership both at city hall and city council.

If we don't get it, some of these decision-makers, or more aptly, decision-fence-sitters, are going to end up having inadvertently negotiated their own trip to the trash can, free of charge, courtesy the rest of us left holding the bag.

This column is part of CBC's Opinion section. For more information about this section, please read this editor's blog and our FAQ. 

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