Report entitled Blue Box Transition Status Update, dated November 5, 2024, be received.

2:43:10our um agenda which is the blue box transition status update to start we have a presentation from

2:43:20our staff nector tampak okay I'm gonna do it I'm gonna say it correctly it's going I'm gonna

2:43:27say it correctly because I can't help me out with this one so it's tampocopolis yes nector tampocopolis

2:43:35and Cameron Walsh who will give us um a presentation um and then we do have a delegate um reg

2:43:44d'orval you'll you'll we'll we'll he'll come up after that okay all right over to you guys thank you

2:43:56good afternoon madam chair mayor guthrie and city counselors uh today we're going to be speaking

2:44:01on the blue box transition program and we'll be talking about the six uh elements associated with

2:44:06it uh presently and as it rolls into 2025 and 2026 so the provincial blue box regulation aims to

2:44:15enhance the performance of recycling systems by making producers of recyclable materials

2:44:20responsible for fully funding and operating the system wealth will transition on january the first

2:44:262025 we are in the final months of transition preparation focusing on communicating the changes

2:44:32to residents we announced via media release on october the 21st the waste management corporation

2:44:38of canada is circular materials preferred proponent to collect recycling and wealth the city will

2:44:44continue to provide recycling collection at the waste resource innovation center through arrangements

2:44:49with circular materials come january circular materials will handle processing of the material

2:44:54that collects and wealth so that our materials recovery facility is ceasing processing operations

2:45:01over 2025 the city will also study how to continue recycling and facilities that are not served under

2:45:06the province's regulation such as churches non-profits and downtown businesses in alignment

2:45:12with the downtown infrastructure renewal program looking ahead to 2026 the blue box regulation

2:45:19will become fully implemented which means enterians will all be recycling the same materials from an

2:45:24expanded list free recycling through circular materials will expand to schools non-profit

2:45:30long-term care and retirement homes and multi-residential buildings that the city does not currently

2:45:34collect and we will no longer be uh permitted to co-mingle commercial and residential recyclables

2:45:41anywhere within the system including the downtown i'll now pass it over to mr welch who will discuss

2:45:47the six elements of the program uh thank you very much nectar uh chair class and and council

2:45:57i will quickly go over the six key elements of our transition plan and the highlights and then

2:46:02we'll uh close it with some next steps in terms of service transition as mentioned earlier we've

2:46:10notified the community that waste management is cmo's preferred contractor for providing

2:46:18blue box service moving forward and that customer service require calls and so forth will go through

2:46:24waste management moving forward as of january 1st 2025 um the city will still be collecting uh as

2:46:32mentioned by nectar um recycles at the pdo under contract with circular material materials and uh

2:46:39there are no changes to organics waste or yard waste collections those services will still be

2:46:46provided by city forces um and in terms of the downtown as mentioned by nectar we're we are uh

2:46:54currently uh working to provide services in the interim in the interim the downtown relative to

2:47:00commercial and business um non-eligible sources while we work through a value from um sorry a

2:47:06user fee study as a result of the value for money audit that was presented in september

2:47:14in terms of the communication and community engagement um element uh communications are

2:47:21underway as mentioned we have some out currently including social media uh web ads and streaming

2:47:27ads as well we'll be putting up materials on transit shelters and so forth the communication

2:47:33will run through the new year through january and february specifically for the transit shelters

2:47:40and um our key messages of course our sorting is still as important as it ever was uh so uh

2:47:45for qualifights to continue to sort and do their best with respect to that and then again that

2:47:50garbage organics and yard waste remains city uh city run and um provided leading up to 2026 you'll

2:47:58see uh renewed communications uh with respect to um the expanded blue box so in in terms of full

2:48:06implementation the province will have additional materials added to the blue box that's significant

2:48:11in that that could mean as much as 25 percent of materials currently in our gray stream migrating

2:48:17into recycle stream which could lead to cost savings for the city further down the road

2:48:25in terms of the next element a staff transition and business continuity we've worked continue to

2:48:31work and have worked in consultation with hr and qp to develop our transition strategy for staff

2:48:38we successfully aligned attrition retirement and vacancies as appropriate to mitigate uh

2:48:43bumping for the collective agreement by about one-third um we're free to working to retain

2:48:48this talented staff obviously within our within our uh city services and of course maintain

2:48:54business performance and to date we've successfully maintained both financial and environmental

2:48:58performance uh through that process in terms of asset transition there are many assets associated

2:49:05with the blue box program currently we're building stationary equipment etc so um you may recall

2:49:13recent discussions around the mirf we're looking to repurpose the material recovery facility to house

2:49:18other planned needs uh and and create some synergies there uh stationary equipment will

2:49:26be decommissioned that's things like belts and so on and so forth in the machines t-tex things like

2:49:30that mobile equipment such as the trucks we're looking to transition those to the new service

2:49:35provider or to auction and then the new service provider waste management will be assuming the

2:49:41carts which is a sale of assets which we're working with waste management on currently

2:49:50in terms of the customer service transition lots of work has gone in in advance with both service

2:49:55wealth and environmental services business services division and customer facing teams

2:50:01and essentially there's a no wrong door approach so we will get folks to the right place as

2:50:05efficiently as possible to have their their customer service concerns addressed and then

2:50:12finally moving forward we'll be monitoring and evaluating the the effects of the change so for

2:50:19instance we mentioned the 25 percent that will potentially migrate out of the gray bin we'll

2:50:25continue through auditing to see how that works through customer service calls you know obviously

2:50:31the data at the at the waste resource innovation center the scale data customer service metrics and

2:50:37then of course financial reporting through variance monitoring and trend analysis

2:50:43and with that then next steps are to continue with our transition plan to continue to monitor and

2:50:49participate in the transition rollout it's been an iterative process and council's been with us

2:50:54through that support staff through the transition finalize the sale of assets as mentioned previously

2:51:00and then continue with our communications and supports to the community and as we work towards

2:51:05the janny refers to a transition date so that concludes our presentation thank you very much

2:51:12thank you for the presentation mr. walsh and mr. tampa tampa coplas i'm gonna get it before we go

2:51:20to questions and comments i'd like to go to greg dorval he is our delegate uh is he in the room

2:51:27nope there's no greg dorval all right so we have no delegates uh for um this item so i with that i

2:51:35will go i will ask um to put the recommendation on the floor can i have a mover and a seconder i have

2:51:42or work and um alt um so that puts the report on the floor entitled blue box transition status

2:51:50update dated november 5th 2024 be received um and i'll go to questions or work and or work for now

2:52:01okay thank you chair class and um through you to our staff i'm a communications person right

2:52:08so you know a ton about this you've been seeing it coming for five years we've seen it we've

2:52:15discussed it in every budget um i know that the staff report says announced upcoming transition

2:52:22changes and then more communication in january but i'm wondering how robust is the communication

2:52:29strategy is it more than the digital ads that we're seeing our it's a fractured communication

2:52:36market in wealth so what's our tactic to make sure that everyone understands how the changes

2:52:41affect them and also the benefits of you know you'll be able to put more in your recycling etc

2:52:46so what what does the rest of the comm strategy look like because i've been putting it in my newsletter

2:52:51for years people are still surprised when i say we're getting out of the blue blocks business

2:52:57um so so what does it look like what can citizens of wealth residents of wealth expect to see in

2:53:03terms of communication so that they understand what's happening through you chair class and

2:53:10do councillor or work um we have a multi prong communication strategy uh that uh takes us up

2:53:16to january first and then re-engages with the community as we get closer to 2026 um it's essentially

2:53:23several uh forward-facing um proactive communications through multiple media outlets

2:53:29um we do know that that um uh you know getting saturation is difficult as you've mentioned

2:53:37so there it's backed up by continued customer service um and uh and uh integrated customer

2:53:45service with the new service provider um so for any folks who miss the communications we have it

2:53:51backed up with our customer service support the intent of this is to be seamless so so really the

2:53:56first part of the transition um we're not going to see any change in collection day so it'll be

2:54:02minor changes like um for instance the blue box may be collected a little later so we can anticipate

2:54:08calls around things like why wasn't my blue box collected we'll we anticipate a bit of a spike

2:54:13there councillor orc and those types of questions based on our experience and then that will taper

2:54:17off um uh we will continue our messaging around um you know keeping your materials in your blue box

2:54:25um setting it at 6 30 a.m um the waste management truck again maybe a little bit later those sorts

2:54:32of things um and so others who have who've transitioned before us have seen a spike and then

2:54:37a decline in similar communication tactics so so it's really a multiple prompt approach and then

2:54:43and then we'll monitor and and then also um if there's a need we'll continue to target communications

2:54:49as well um so through you chair class and to uh mr. walsh so um that's helpful in terms of understanding

2:54:58who's now you know picking up your recycling um one thing that's exciting about this transition though

2:55:05tell me if i get the number wrong we'll be able to put about 30 more things in the blue box right

2:55:10that's great we anticipate about 25 yes okay so so is that a different strategy in terms of what you

2:55:16can put in your blue box uh what's the plan to get people excited about that actually because it

2:55:21could mean a lot more diversion again the in 20 as we move towards 2026 getting closer to that that's

2:55:28when the communication plan um uh comes to life uh in terms of the tactics um i would need to uh

2:55:37actually go provide the communication plan to i don't have it handy but it would it's multiple

2:55:41prong to councillor or work and i don't have uh in front of me other than the tactics we have here

2:55:50the the specific tactics okay thanks yep thank you councillor or councillor Allt please

2:56:02how's our hearing chair class um i'm actually following up on a very similar line to what

2:56:08councillor or work was uh raising i was going to ask about the 25 percent and the items that

2:56:14might be constituted and sure we don't have a complete list uh the comment about seamlessness

2:56:21is is really important and i think that this too is another teachable moment um uh are we going to

2:56:27be seeing within the community more fewer or about the same uh community members with blue boxes

2:56:38in other words we'll expand will we reduce it uh where are we going with it through you chair class

2:56:46and to councillor Allt we will see the same amount of blue boxes in the community so waste management

2:56:52plans to purchase our existing complement of blue boxes and then moving forward at the

2:56:58the established service levels the blue box program will expand uh with with growth so it will expand

2:57:05and continue uh within the regime so we won't see say condominium corporations that notice any

2:57:11difference in in uh they're perhaps a private service um that's that's really all that i was

2:57:17getting at um is there any prediction on the percentage diversion that we might experience

2:57:22because i expect with 25 percent increase in items that we would see diversion going up i think it's

2:57:29for about 60 percent right now uh do we have any any understanding of where new capacity will be

2:57:38through you councillor through chair class and to councillor Allt that's a 25 percent uh that would

2:57:42be a 25 percent increase so that's 25 less waste uh that would then be diverted into the recycling

2:57:50system based on our data so what do we see about 85 percent recycled and wealth because that's

2:57:55that's a great number more like 75 percent i think would be yep yep that's a great number too thanks a

2:58:02lot potentially yep thanks great thank you councillor Allt um are there any more questions

2:58:08just questions at this point no okay i have a couple of questions um mine are some simple

2:58:14questions for the end users so um i am uh i'm a i get my waste collected every week like everyone

2:58:23else in this room and i just want to know for example if um you know i need a new blue

2:58:28cart gets you know damaged or destroyed how do i go about doing that and then for other

2:58:34changes to the program maybe you can just give me a heads up on like those day to day things that

2:58:39might change for me thank you uh chair class and uh so you would call um the service provider

2:58:48which would be waste management if if the count if the resident happens to call the city we would

2:58:55seamlessly transition that that call to the right folks on uh who are responsible accountable then

2:59:00for the blue box program um and then any changes moving forward uh would would be communicated

2:59:07through waste management and and actually circular materials ontario would be the folks who would

2:59:14would communicate anything related to blue box we would support those uh we envision supporting

2:59:18those types of communications uh because it is a somewhat integrated uh my customer perspective

2:59:25okay thank you and so and that information about how to contact

2:59:30wm that will be available on the website absolutely yes okay perfect thank you um and then i just have

2:59:35one more um i just wanted to ask about the downtown i said on the dgba and i know that the rules are

2:59:41a little bit different for them and maybe some other institutions so i just wonder if you could

2:59:45just quickly speak to that will they continue to receive collection um and and what those changes

2:59:50might be in the future with council support for 2025 uh collections in the downtown will remain

2:59:58as they are now while we work through the uh the user fee uh study and bring recommendations

3:00:04recommendations forward um probably in q3 of of 2025 with respect to potential options for the

3:00:11downtown potentially uh things could change but could potentially see more bins things like that

3:00:16down the road however we're working to to understand that better and to make that as seamless uh and

3:00:23painless as possible okay great thank you um and we'll council hear hear back about about that next

3:00:30year okay great thank you um that's it for me so i'm just going to go to comments and just see if

3:00:37there's anybody who has a comment before we go to the vote i'm not seeing anything so thank you for

3:00:43the presentation and and the and the time here um so i'd like to just put the recommendation

3:00:49on the screen please before i call the vote i've already read it once so it's it's up there um i'd

3:00:56like to um call the vote so all those who are against please raise your hand i see no hands

3:01:05raised so that passes unanimously uh so the recommendation carries um thank you staff and