Inuvik Town Council has established a new load-dependant tipping fee schedule that it hopes will minimize the number of contractors appealing for discounts at the landfill for big projects.
Town Councillors voted 8-0 to approve the new schedule by motion and voted unanimously in favour of a new Solid Waste Collection bylaw to clarify the town's position. Under the bylaw, the town will be able to waive the set tipping fees by way of a resolution.
"We had a look at the different options on how we do it from a point of view of ensuring our revenue stream still remains," said senior administrative officer Grant Hood. "There's no guarantee every year how many (fees) we're going to get, because it is over and above the amount that is budgeted.
"The way we've looked at it is with the loads, based on historically looking the size of the loads as far as weight goes from the trucks, coming up with a minimum weight where the first x is free, or a flat rate. Then anything over and above would be an additional price, but depending on the project if you have a number of loads, then you would get a volume discount, where everything is reduced.
"Nothing will change that much for individual smaller projects. Zero to 50 loads is the base price we're looking at."
Tipping fees have been the subject of discussion around town for much of the year, with a January proposal to reduce the tipping fees by 50 per cent for EGT-Northwind to bring steel taken from the Tuk Island Remediation Site in Tuktoyaktuk first being defeated in council then brought back the same week after over 50 people filled Town Council chambers to demand they change their mind.
More recently, Town Council also approved a discount for the Eskimo Inn Group of 25 per cent discount for the first phase of the demolition of the building in August. Council also approved a 15 per cent discount for the second phase, but the business later opted to pay the full rate.
Fees were also waived for a survivor of the Wolverine Road fire that destroyed several houses after learning the homeowner did not have insurance to cover the clean-up.
Inuvik's beautification week also has historically waived fees at the landfill from June 1-15, though town administration had earlier stated this year that the town may be looking at a new structure for handling the week.
Councillors praised administration for the new structure.
"This is exactly what I was looking for," said Coun. Clarence Wood. "What it does is it gives us a level playing field for everybody. There's no longer any guess-work involved. Now we have something to go by and nobody will be able to say we're favouring one person over another.
"It's the whole element of fairness that we've now addressed."