The residents of Rideau-Vanier are not happy with the garbage collection service in their neighbourhoods and want the city to act.
According to City of Ottawa Open Data Catalog, in August 2014 highest number of garbage related service request calls came from the ward and the residents say the problem still continues.
Scattered garbage bins in front of a house in Nelson Street, Photo: Sharif Hasan
Marie-Gauthier, who has been living in the ward’s Sandy Hill neighbourhood since 1992 said, “The garbage problem isn’t sparing us. In fact, it’s getting worse every year.”
“There’s a high amount of garbage turn out and there are some people who don’t follow the system. So, it stays out for quite a while,” she added.
She complained that the city is not proactive enough to consider the growing number of people in the ward, which is contributing to the deterioration of the situation.
In August 2014, the total number of garbage collection related calls made from this ward was 70, which was 42 in the same month of the previous year.
A total of 817 calls were made from the 23 wards of Ottawa city in August 2014. The second highest number of calls came from Baarhaven while the lowest number of calls was made from Stittsville-Kanata West.
In August 2013, a total of 845 calls were made and College ward ranked number one whereas the lowest number of calls came from Kanata North.
Ward councillor Mathieu Fleury said that this is not unusual to have as many as 70 calls as the Rideau-Vanier is one of the most densely populated wards of the city. He also said that he appreciates the fact that people are making calls to keep their neighbourhood clean.
“It’s good that the residents are reporting the problems and I would like to work with them in order to improve the quality of life in the area.”
“I understand people want weekly garbage pick-up but we don’t have the workforce needed for that,” he added.
Fleury also said that the residents should maintain diversion bins and bag their garbage properly to get some relief from the problem.
Jakir Talukder, a PhD candidate at Ottawa University said that garbage collection has been a constant problem for the area and there is no action in sight.
“Many people blame it on the students who mostly live in the rental properties in the neighbourhood but it’s the responsibility of the city to find some kind of solution,” he said.
Talukder has recently moved to an apartment in Prince of Wales neighbourhood and feels happy that he does not have to worry about his trash any more.
Walter Robinson, the former chief of staff to Mayor O’Brien said in an e-mail that there are many reasons why people make the 311 calls. It could be a missed or late collection or a missing or damaged bin that people wanted to report.
He also said that 70 calls out of 817 constitute only 9 per cent of the total calls received by the service department. Therefore it should not be inferred that the service is really bad.
However, Gauthier said that garbage collection is a big issue and the city needs to address the problem seriously.
“They should do something about this before the summer. I fear what’s going to happen when it gets warm. Cats, raccoons, they all create such a mess and it smells horrible,” she said.