Garbage pickup service within the Town of Comox has started to show signs of improvement, according to the municipality’s chief administrative officer.
At the town’s Sept. 8 council meeting, CAO Jordan Wall explained to council following an inquiry from Coun. Ken Grant, a conversation with service provider Emterra along with Courtenay and Cumberland’s CAOs proved to be “very fruitful” as service levels have stabilized.
In August, council voiced their concerns about garbage pickup within the town to the Comox Valley Regional District. At the time, Wall said he and the other two CAOs in the Valley would meet with Emterra to further discuss their service delivery issues.
During the meeting last month, Grant noted garbage service within the town has been “abysmal” and it is beyond the point of excuses.
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“Emterra has sourced a few new vehicles including side load vehicles which makes operation from one driver much easier as well as some labour from the Surrey area which is helping in them meeting their service requirements,” Wall said during the meeting.
“They’ve brought in a new flexible work pool as well across their whole western portion of the country so in the future when these things happen again they’ll be able to bring in (workers).”
Wall added he will have a further conversation with Emterra and if their extra measures end up short, that the town will be aware ahead of time and could assist with municipal resources.
“I’m hopeful for the next good while that we’re going to have the type of service that has been delivered to the residents of Comox for the past 15 years and not the past year-and-a-half.”
Grant added he believes part of the problem began when pickup on statutory holidays was removed, and it bumped Courtenay’s recycling pickup onto Comox’s pickup day.
“It would be nice to find a resolution where we could get back to Courtenay one week and us another week because I think that’s probably a big piece of this problem,” he said.
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