Prince George City Council has the cost for recommendations from the City’s Advisory Committee on Bear Awareness.
The costs will be presented to City Council in a report at tomorrow’s (Monday) meeting.
The recommendations were originally presented to City Council in November. Council had requested a report come back with the costs of the recommendations at that meeting.
In total, the Committee brought forward eight recommendations.
The first recommendation is to establish a “Sustainable Waste Coordinator” position focused on sustainable waste management and committing financial support for the position for the next five years.
According to the report, the salary cost and non-labour expenses to support this would be approximately $140,000. The report estimates this would be a 2.5 per cent increase in solid waste rates, an approximate impact of $4, $6 and $7 on small, medium and large garbage containers respectively.
The second recommendation is to have that Sustainable Waste Coordinator included on a Bear Aware Technical Committee which would also consist of a number of community stakeholders, such as the Northern Bear Awareness Society, UNBC, and the BC Conservation Officer Service. This recommendation doesn’t have a dollar figure attached to it, but the report states the bear-focused City staff position would be essential to this committee.
The third recommendation involves incorporating automated bear-resistant waste bins on a two-year pilot project, and returning a report to City Council following the pilot’s completion.
Staff comments on recommendation five said the rough estimate for the purchase of a bear-resistant bin is between $400 and $500.
The report states there are roughly 26,000 bins in the city, and it would cost approximately $10 million to replace the City’s bin inventory.
Recommendation four is to continue to phase in bear-resistant solid waste bins in public places. The report states the city has been doing this for over a decade.
Recommendation five is to direct administration to consider actively participating in and supporting programs aimed at reducing bear attractants through initiatives such as bear-resistant bins, fruit gleaning and harvest sharing, and public education, and combining support for these programs.
Recommendation six is to adopt a new bylaw specific to wildlife attractants and solid waste while recommendation seven is to amend the City’s Zoning Bylaw to permit electric fencing to secure wildlife attractants.
The final recommendation is to include education materials on human-bear interactions with the City’s utility bills on the spring and fall billing cycles, and to incorporate bear awareness information on the garbage collection schedule.
The City includes an inserter that can reliably do inserts of two-double-sided 8 1/2 by 11 pieces of paper into a standard size envelope.
One page is used for the bill, while the other page is used to convey important information.
According to the report, if the City were to purchase a new inserter to handle additional inserts with the bills, it would cost an estimated $25,000. They would also have to change the size of the envelopes at an estimated cost of $3,000 per utility cycle.
Other items to be discussed at tomorrow’s meeting includes an update on the City’s corporate work plan, and first three readings of the City’s tax rates bylaw for the year.
The full agenda is here.
Something going on in the Prince George area you think people should know about?
Send us a news tip by emailing [email protected].
