Here is my comment to Ken Gray on Garbage-gate:

Ken,

This whole garbage consultation and discussion is a sham and a waste of taxpayers time and money.  And returning councillors and city staff know it too.

When the green bin program was passed by the previous council, it was known by everyone that in order to make the Orgaworld contract to be financially viable, the city would have to move to bi-weekly garbage.  Staff told councillors this and councillors voted for the green bin program knowing this.  The only change the councillors themselves made to the plan was to delay the move of bi-weekly pick-up to after the election because they didn’t want it to become an election issue.

These are not my words.  Here is Councillor Eli El-Chantiry on CFRA with Rob Snow on January 13, 2011: http://ow.ly/4qe4q

So to me, all this money that this council is spending on consultations and holding meetings and issuing press releases about all the savings is a joke.  They already know how it’s going to end because they have no other choice.

And yesterday, they released the cost breakdown of the savings and said it was somewhere around $28 per household.  But on February 15, Randall Denley costed the regular garbage pickup to be about $89 per household (City Hall math misleads), so if they cut the service in half, should the savings be closer to the $45 mark?

The councillors are leading the press around by the nose on this one and Ottawa residents are going down the garbage chute.  It’s a sham I tell you!

Ken Gray is a prolific blogger for the Ottawa Citizen.  You can find his blog, The Bulldog everyday online.