Questions are being raised about the Town of Jasper’s increase in garbage collection fees this year by prominent landlords in town.

There have been a number of waste related fee increases in Jasper in 2010. An extra $2 per month recycling fee was added onto all residential units in Jasper this year. For apartments in Jasper, this was a 39.1 per cent raise in costs for the year and 20.6 per cent raise for single family residences and a 27.7 per cent raise for multi-family units.

Added to this, a solid waste fee increase of 13 per cent was added onto all residences in Jasper. For single family residences, annual rates went from $211.75 in 2009 to $231.28 in 2010.

Jasper’s Director of Environmental Services Ken Quackenbush offered several justifications for the fee increases.

“Council’s goal is to operate a user-pay system with no operating subsidies from the municipal taxpayer,” he wrote. “In order to do so, we have significantly increased fees for three consecutive years so that we are now operating without any direct cost to the tax envelope.”

Jasper Town Council has received a letter from Urbanlife Management Ltd., one of the largest landlords in Jasper, complaining about the substantial increase in garbage collection fees. Urbanlife Management has since received a response to their complaints, one that they were satisfied with.

Jim Webb, President of Urbanlife Management Ltd. compared his complaint to going to an auto mechanic. When you find out that you’re going to have to pay $2,000 for a problem you didn’t know you had, you’re going to be angry. Once you talk with the mechanic though and find out why the costs are so high, you tend to settle down, he said.

“I am satisfied with the response I’ve received from the municipality,” he said.

His original letter seemed anything but satisfied, however.

“This type of unexpected and apparently exorbitant increase in mandatory services will force us into a position of adding a very broad cushion to such costs when calculating rental increases; this will no doubt impact negatively on affordability,” reads the letter.

The letter, which is dated June 29, 2010, was presented to council at their July 20 general meeting.

Quackenbush’s response is that the market for paper and cardboard over the past years has become dismal, which in turn means the cost of recycling goes up as the recycled products are not selling for as much profit.

Quackenbush also stated garbage fees in Jasper are as much as 40 per cent lower (for single family rates) than collection rates in Edmonton.

He also noted how difficult it was to hold people accountable directly for how much garbage they produce. In cities like Edmonton, where homeowners have individual garbage cans right in front of their homes, it is easier to determine who makes the most garbage. In Jasper, where there is no curbside pickup and where garbage bins are shared by the entire town, it’s harder to track down big garbage makers.

“Ideally, we would operate a ‘pay as you throw’ system of the kind now emerging in many municipalities where a residence’s fees reflect precisely the quantity of waste generated...” reads his letter to Urbanlife. “Unfortunately, we are not able to set such a system in place at this time.”