Transitioning at the full term of the contract will have no negative financial impact on the City of Windsor in terms of ending the contract early; however, the City will not benefit from passing along the full cost of the recycling program to the Producers at its earliest possible date and the resulting elimination of Recycling Program costs.

The last possible date for transition is December 31st 2025. A transition on this date, or any date after August 27, 2024 would require an extension of the existing contract with GFL or the issuance of a new tender. The existing contract does allow for two extension of 1 year each, subject to a mutual agreement on the service fee.

Service Delivery

During discussions with the Ministry and Municipalities, Producers have indicated they may have an interest in entering into agreements with Municipalities to manage the collection of recycling. While there is no obligation for Municipalities to do so, there are some reasons to give it consideration:

1. Since 2010, the City of Windsor has benefited from a discounted garbage collection rate by awarding both garbage and recycling collection contracts to the same provider. Entering into an agreement with the Producers may allow the City of Windsor to maintain these economies of scale. This may become even more impactful when the City of Windsor implements a food and organic waste curbside collection, which is required under current legislation by the year 2025.

2. The regulations set out by the Ministry address only residential recycling. The City of Windsor currently provides recycling to some small businesses, multi- residential buildings, BIAs and schools – all of which may not be transitioned to the Producers. Should the City of Windsor wish to continue providing this service to its ICI customers, it would be most efficient to do so with the larger residential recycling collection.

3. Producers have also expressed a possible interest in Call Service systems such as the City of Windsor’s 311. Residents are already accustomed to calling 311 for any collection service issues. In order to minimize any impact on our residents 311 could continue to take calls regarding recycling and forward them to the Producers, if agreeable terms can be achieved.

While there is no guarantee that mutually agreeable terms can be reached with Producers on service provisions, an attempt should be made in order to maximize the budget allocations and customer service.

Risk Analysis:

AMO is requesting a resolution from City of Windsor Council by June 30th, 2020 although a response is preferred by the end of the first fiscal quarter. If AMO is unaware of the City’s preferred course of action, they will be unable to advocate on our behalf during discussions with the Ministry and Producers. In any event, the decision to enter into discussion with Producers on service provision will likely be required by December 2020 in order to give Producers sufficient time to prepare tender documents.