Black Diamond residents won’t see a recycling fee on their upcoming utility bills after town council agreed to no longer charge for the service, which halted last month.
At its April 15 meeting, council approved a temporary bylaw to remove the $12 bimonthly recycle rate effective May 1.
The Town of Turner Valley closed the facility last month due to safety concerns that employees were working in close quarters with the public, increasing their risk of contracting COVID-19.
“Turner Valley council made that decision a couple weeks ago to waive the recycling fees in their utility bills when they made the decision to close the recycle depot to the public for the purposes of people not adhering to physical distancing,” Black Diamond CAO Sharlene Brown told council Monday. “In light of that, I think the same consideration needs to be made for our residents.”
Brown said because residents already paid for recycling this month despite not having the service, they won’t be charged for the first month the service returns when the facility reopens to area residents.
“The challenge is you can’t do a bylaw retroactively,” she said. “If the recycle centre opens up July 1 the citizens of Black Diamond would have a reprieve from July 1 to July 30 on their recycling fees and then we would re-establish the fee for August.”
Before the decision was made, Coun. Ted Bain said he was concerned residents were being billed for a service that wasn’t provided and supported council passing all three readings of the bylaw to remove the fee in one meeting.
“I don’t like passing all three motions at the same meeting, however I’m sure administration has thought this though very closely,” he said. “I think under the circumstances we can go ahead to the third reading.”
To remove recycling charges from utility bills, administration drafted a temporary bylaw to amend the fee schedule in Bylaw 07-30. The bylaw will expire Sept. 15 or when services resume, whichever comes first.
Council also agreed at its April 15 meeting to pass first reading to amend the tax instalment payment plan bylaw to allow council, under certain conditions, to set a timeframe to defer property tax payments and allow administration to spread out tax payments property owners would have otherwise have to pay in full over the remainder of the year.
According to the current bylaw, a citizen who purchases property in May that wasn’t previously on the payment program must pay the amounts owing for January to May in full before making their first instalment payment in June.
Administration will post the draft bylaw changes on the town website and bring it back to council for further readings at its May 6 meeting.
