Essex council rejects using reserves to pay for green bins

Essex council has rejected a motion to use reserves to pay for the green bin program.

Essex County Council has rejected using reserves to pay for the green bin program.

“I am not going to go into reserves to pay for it,” said Chris Gibb, Amherstburg’s deputy mayor.

“We should have thought of that at budget, or it’ll be up to the next council to think about it at the next budget.”

The group debated using millions of dollars in reserves to ease the immediate impact on taxpayers.

Residents have pushed back against the costs from the program, citing a lack of transparency. County staff warned that it’s not sustainable to rely on reserves for programs.

County council is now considering moving the compost fee onto the general tax levy.

“Looking into the future to phase in the county levy, I think that’s important,” said Dennis Rogers, Kingsville mayor.

“You look in that report and you see a nine per cent tax increase if it’s done once, which is a significant amount. I think we have to do everything we can to be able to east that in.”

Lakeshore mayor Tracey Bailey said there would be an opportunity for council to mitigate the cost a little bit.

“Utilize rate stabilization reserves to offset it and then later on, to consider using that time to bring the cost down and come up with other solutions,” she said.

Council voted 11-3 against the motion, disagreeing with Bailey’s perspective.

Bailey said some residents felt like they didn’t get enough communication on the proposed changes and she said the motion was meant to ease the financial burden on residents, while working towards a long-term solution.

“I know some residents are lobbying around, wondering whether or not there’s an opt out and there has not been an opt out,” she said.

“There’s no availability to do that, so what comes next in terms of trying to mitigate cost across the region for residents when it comes to garbage, organics, and recycling is yet to be seen.”