Ontario Libertarian Party
Attention News / Assignment Editors:
July 16, 2009
Thanks to the garbage strike, now in its third week, Torontonians have had to put up with mounds and mounds of garbage. It is now everywhere – in parks, near arenas, and homeowners are even advised to keep it in their garages. Garbage bins are overflowing and streets are littered with refuse. Homeowners are obliged to wait hours in line and told they may only dispose of two or three bags, discouraging them from helping out their neigbours. Tourists are discouraged from visiting Toronto
The question that needs to be asked is Why? Why is Toronto in this predicament? Is it because of the Unions? Certainly they are the ones on strike. Is it because of the Politicians? Surely they are responsible for getting us to this point. However we believe the real culprit is something that most people would never consider; the City’s monopoly on garbage collection.
Thanks to this ‘garbage monopoly’ taxpayers are paying more (for trash bins) and getting less (fewer pickups). And as with any monopoly, we can assume it costs much more to have city employees pick up our garbage than it would for a private company. (What private company could afford to let their employees bank 18 sick-days every year?) No one benefits from this except the unions. The taxpayer is treated like garbage.
Libertarians would solve Toronto’s trash problem with a simple solution: Allow private garbage collection and end the monopoly. This works in the former municipality of Etobicoke and the six municipalities surrounding Toronto. In 2007 the Ontario Waste Management Association advised Toronto City Council that they could save at least $10 million per year, and possibly as much as $30 million a year by contracting out Toronto’s residential waste collection!
Charlotte, North Carolina, A city about one quarter the size of Toronto, realized savings of $14 million over the first five years of its program of managed competition for waste collection. A 2007 study of 15 North Carolina cities found that Charlotte's collection costs per ton of garbage were 35 percent less than the statewide average. A large body of research has revealed that such savings figures are typical, with savings ranging from 20 to 60 percent.
This will provide true choice to rate payers, end union threats and coercion, and ensure garbage is collected at a reasonable price. Wow, isn’t that real progress. We think so!
Government is the problem, not the solution.
To learn more about the Ontario Libertarian Party, please visit www.libertarian.on.ca.
For more information, contact Jim McIntosh of the Ontario Libertarian Party at 416-283-7589 or via
References
National Post, 20 Sep 2007, Pg A14,
Privatizing trash collection could save $10M
Reason Foundation, 16June 2008,
San Diego Can Benefit from Private Trash Collection