The city of Moncton is making some changes to waste collection services in the city.
Spokesperson Bruce Tait says council was presented with options to consider: manual waste collection in the three coloured bags as it has been, the same service provided by an outside contractor or automated collection, with bins, provided by either city forces or an outside contractor.
The city of Moncton isn’t moving to a bin system, but it has decided to contract out the service.
The tender was awarded to Miller Waste Systems for just over 6 million dollars.
Councillor Charles Leger says while it is the lowest cost option and nobody would be losing their job, it could still impact workers.
Keith Hatto with the union representing city waste collection workers, says they weren’t consulted on the decision to outsource.
“Contractors are hiring employees at 15 dollars an hour, and those who pick get as low as 12 dollars an hour. What we should be looking at is not just how we provide our services but making sure that we have some accountability that the people who are doing these jobs are taken care of properly,” he says.
Hatto says it should be a criteria that workers are receiving at least a living wage when these decisions are made.
