How private garbage contractors turned state-of-the-art showers into gravy

It’s starting to look like the world of privatized garbage collection isn’t as gravy-free as the mayor and his friends would have you believe. Councillors pushing for privatized collection said that it would save the city $11 million annually, but the Toronto Star reports that this figure overlooks the $5 million the city has already spent to renovate a parking and maintenance facility. The catch? Green For Life, the winning bidder for garbage collection, says they don’t need it, which means the city won’t be able to collect the $444,000 per year leasing fee and $130,000 in property taxes they were expecting to make. Worse, under Rob Ford, the renovation budget was hiked by $800,000. The result is a facility that CUPE’s vice-president described as “state of the art,” with new showers and work areas, lying fallow. All this goes to show that contracting out services doesn’t guarantee you’ll get rid of the gravy; waste is still waste. Read the entire story [Toronto Star] »