Hikes to parking permits and fines and new fees for other city services are on the way.
At this week's Timmins council meeting, the 2021-2025 user fee bylaw was approved.
The current bylaw outlining the cost for everything from marriage licenses to building permits to parking fees and ice rentals expires Dec. 31.
While the majority of changes are to allow for cost-of-living increases, there are a couple of new fees for using the Tisdale and Deloro landfill, and biohazards. The cost for a monthly parking permit and parking fines have also been changed.
For parking passes, the monthly price will go up by $5 every year. The current pass is $45 a month. By 2025 it will be $75 per month.
The last time the price changed was in 2013 when it was increased from $40, which was set in 1990.
Parking fines are also on the rise.
The new price will be $16 if paid within the first five days, and $20 after. The current price is $8 for the early-pay option and $12 after.
For parking passes, the original suggestion was to increase the monthly pass by $10 each year, which would have meant a $95 monthly price tag by the end of the five-year bylaw.
Coun. Cory Robin said the $10 increase was "quite the jump". Working downtown, he said he would have a hard time swallowing the monthly payment.
A monthly pass for Timmins Transit is currently $80.
“Certainly, we should always be equal to a transit pass, that’s what we’re trying to do is to ensure people ... maximize the use of the transit system,” said Timmins Mayor George Pirie.
He also promoted more green and active ways to get around such as walking or carpooling.
For waste management, there will be a new $3 user fee to use the Deloro landfill and Tisdale transfer station to offset the cost for scale maintenance and attendants.
Public works and engineering director Pat Seguin said over the next five years the city is regulated to do a couple projects -— a $1.6 million composting program and a $2.5 million methane gas collection system. He said the annual operating cost for the department is about $4 million.
“You look at the business of picking up garbage if you don’t start charging for those things, the tax base will have to pick it up,” he said.
The city landfills also have a limit. He likened it to a container that can hold a certain volume. Once it's filled, the city has to build a new one, which is millions of dollars.
“At Tisdale specifically, in order to recoup our cost to operate that, which is a duplication in service, we would have to charge $11 per visit. So we’re charging $3 to keep it on par with what’s happening at Deloro,” he said.
Some councillors raised concern that a fee would encourage people to throw garbage in the bush instead,
“Our landfill has a limited lifespan left on it, $3 I think it’s acceptable … there will always be the outliers, residents that don’t abide by the rules, but I think most people will,” said Coun. Michelle Boileau.
Pirie is in favour of the charges. Without a fee said other taxpayers are absorbing the cost or subsidizing people putting out more garbage.
“This is a big issue in the city and we have to tackle it with some seriousness,” he said.
The biggest new fee added is $500 for biohazard cleanup.
Palmateer explained there have been a number of property cleanups with significant garbage "littered with needles and other sharps".
“Most recently we had a property where we had to clean up the garbage and we had to pick up 800 needles," he said.
"I know that many people believe that this is a homeless issue. Let me assure you these needles were not left by homeless, this was not a homeless encampment. This was basically a small apartment complex where tenants are just throwing garbage out the window into the backyard. We provide free garbage pickup, I don’t understand that thought process, but believe me it’s out there. We have to clean it up so we would like to have this fee so we can go after the landlords and make them a bit more accountable for what their tenants are doing."
The definition of biohazard and the limits of what will be considered a biohazard fee have not been set yet.
Council will have to approve it in an amendment to the property standards bylaw. Once a biohazard is defined, Palmateer said the fee can be applied.
Right now, he said it is focused on sharps and needles.
“I know in many instances (staff are) filling up two and three five-gallon pails full of needles. That’s where this has become the issue,” he said.
The full bylaw setting out the new user fees for 2021-2025 is available here.
