It looks like the curbside organics collection will be done by the City of Saskatoon rather than a third party contractor.
After a report from Administration, the Governance and Priorities Committee moved to recommend in-house collections to City Council.
The General Manager of Utilities and Environment reported that the costs would be similar either way, but there is more predictability with the in-house model.
Angela Gardiner says it would be about $2.94 per household per month for in-house work and for a contractor it would range from $3 to $3.71, although it is difficult to estimate because there are many variabilities.
Mayor Charlie Clark introduced the motion to approve the work to be done in-house citing three reasons.
He says the City is already doing the work for the volunteer curbside organics program, so they already have the bins and the equipment.
It would also move things along more quickly because there would be no need for RFPs from contractors and the biggest reason, Clark says, is no other city identified in the report has three separate operators, where one owns the bins, one does the collecting and the other does the processing.
Hiring a third party would put them right in the middle with no control over the bins which the city owns or the processing, which has been contracted to Green Prairie Environmental Ltd.
The recommendation has yet to go through City Council.
City-wide organics collection is expected to begin in September of 2023.