Demand claim filed for refund of waste and recycling charges

By Lethbridge Herald on February 23, 2023.

Editor:

At this point in time like most residential households, the concerns are the increasing costs, the financial burden to the bank account, like food, household debt, and utility fees which keep increasing such as waste and recycling collection fees.

We would like to speak about your utility bill and the Recycle Collection item. Like most citizens with COVID or health problems, utility rates were not of top concern. I have to admit to being a person who checked his monthly bills it was not a concern. One day recently I was checking the payables and looking at my City utility statement something was not right with the Recycling collection charge rate of 0.298 a day which is over $9 monthly.

The reason for concern, and should be of all residential households, our group monitors City utilities including electricity distribution tariffs. The reason for our concern about the Curbside Recycling collection fee is on Nov. 25, 2018, the acting City Solicitor presented to city council the new Waste Bylaw 6146 merger of Waste and Recycling and referred to the 2018-2027 CIP program with the wording “which includes a net increase of $7 to the monthly residential recycling collection customers the waste and recycling charges effective 2019.”

A later recommendation by the general manager of Waste & Recycling to change black cart service from weekly to bi-weekly – a net projected change to a $5.50 blue cart fee, never happened. Our group has filed a demand claim to city council on behalf of residential households for the period of January 2021 to January 31, 2023, for a $4 per month refund caused by incorrect rate charges. The monthly residential curbside recycling collection fee should be $5. To date, city council has not responded, which is typical.

The Alberta Municipal Government Act Section 43 (1) states a person who uses, receives, or pays for a municipal utility service may appeal a service charge, rate, or toll made in respect of (b) has not been improperly imposed. As I stated we have filed a claim in the best interests of the residential households with city council. Your involvement could be for the record to e-mail or phone 311 with an objection to the $9 rate and say you want the $5 rate. The rate for the organic curbside collection will be $5, the same type of service.

Ken Ikle

Spokesperson for the Committee for Residential Utilities