A slate of Langford council candidates is challenging the way garden waste is handled in the municipality, citing the role of a company owned by Mayor Stew Young.
But residents already have options when it comes to disposing of yard waste, said Young, who argues it isn’t fair to make some residents pay through taxation for a service they won’t use.
Others say the slate is drastically underestimating the cost of contracting garden-waste services out to Colwood.
The Time for Change candidates — Pauline Adams, Paul Barber, Dustin Finerty, Jim Munro and Tim Power — say they will pursue a deal with Colwood to accept Langford’s residential yard waste, if elected.
Langford does not have a public-works yard for residential garden waste, so residents seeking a disposal service pay private collectors or drop-off centres. Alpine Disposal and Recycling, which belongs to Young’s Alpine Group of companies, is the only garden-waste facility in Langford, according to a Capital Regional District listing.
Several other collection operations in the capital region serve Langford residents, but Adams said it isn’t right for the mayor’s company to benefit from something that is a municipal service in other cities.
“The mayor is welcome to own any company he wants, but this is a clear conflict of interest,” Adams said.
Young said residents aren’t obligated to use Alpine, which collects yard waste as a small portion of its business.
Providing a municipal yard-waste service would require raising taxes — which would mean people who compost or live in condos would be paying for a service they don’t use, he said.
Young said the municipality itself contracts a company other than Alpine for gardening and garden-waste cleanup on municipal land.
Time for Change estimated it would cost about $6,000 for a one-year contract for Colwood to accept Langford’s yard waste. However, Adams said the slate did not consult Colwood or do direct research, relying on a former Langford councillor for the figure. That former councillor, Heather Ashton, said the number was a rough figure she was given 15 years ago when she first approached Colwood about the prospect of sharing services, and would have been in addition to the services of a Langford staff member.
Langford Coun. Denise Blackwell said council explored the option of contracting Victoria Contracting and Municipal Maintenance Corp. on Millstream Road to accept municipal yard waste six years ago. It would have cost $750,000 a year, she said.
“That’s a five per cent tax increase for everybody in Langford,” she said.
Former Colwood mayor Dave Saunders agreed the Time for Change estimate is too low, based on what the service costs Colwood residents. “Those saying it can be done for very minimal costs in Langford just don’t have their facts correct,” he said.
He also said expanding the Colwood operation to take Langford yard waste would be a tough sell in Colwood, where residents would be faced with increased traffic and noise from the garden-waste facility next to the Wishart Road city hall.
Colwood Mayor Carol Hamilton said her council has not been approached by either the Time for Change candidates or Langford council in the current term about sharing municipal yard-waste services.
However, it’s an issue the city could explore, she said. “We’re looking to find ways to cost-share on services. If that’s deemed one option that the public’s willing to look at and we have the capacity, hey, let’s open the door to the conversation.”
