There was an amazing turnaround in the plunge into privatized garbage collection for Scarborough at City Hall Tuesday. The seemingly unstoppable plan to put the job up for bidding which electrified local politics two weeks ago has been stopped dead. Instead, Mayor Tory and his supporters found that the likelihood of Council voting to approve the proposal passed by the Public Works Committee was very chancy. News stories Tuesday are vague about names but there is said to be resistance to privatization from both “left” and “right” supporters to privatization. The reasons may differ. Some just don’t like the idea of non-union service period. Some on the right are undecided over whether contracting out will really save money. The City has received reports which seem to contradict each other. One insight emerging today is that the union employees, member of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, have become more efficient since privatization of collection west of Yonge in 2012. It now seems this subject is dormant until after the 2018 election. Committee opens bidding for private collection in Scarborough CP24
