THE CORPORATION OF THE
CITY OF PORT COQUITLAM

MEMORANDUM

TO: City Administrator May 7, 1987

FROM: City Engineer

SUBJECT: Review of Canus Container Proposal ~ Public Works
Committee May 5, 1987

Recommendation:

That the City call for Proposals for the supply of
containers to be used with an automated container pick-up
service and that the call for proposals request details of the
offer to the residents and specify conditions under which the
City will enter: into an agreement with the company and the
minimum compensation required by the City to cover the costs of
the service.

Background and Comments:

The Public Works Committee received a copy of a report
from the Deputy City Engineer which was available to members of
Council through the Public Works Committee minutes. This
report was requested as a resuit of representations to. the
Committee and to Council by residents of the Mary Hill area who
wished to have Council reinstate the Canus Container Service.

At the time of Council's previous rejection of the
service, one of the perceived problems was a reduction jin the
level of service to other residents due to the problem of heavy
object pick-up. Since that time the City has instituted a
method of pick~up whereby the heavy items are left unti! the
end of the route and then placed in the hopper of the garbage
truck rather than being cycled through the compressor. This
method has been in use for a number of weeks and appears to
work satisfactorily. It will be continued with or without the
implementation of a container service. We have also done a
detailed estimate of the costs of provided a container service,
This detailed estimate is only based on records from a short
trial period and on conjecture as to the reduced Iife of the
vehicle. Estimated direct costs, assuming a 60% usage of the
container, amounts to about $21,000. In addition, an allowance
for extra costs due to the extra length of time that it might
take to pick-up the containers comes to about $30,000. This
latter amount is very difficult to estimate and theretore must
be considered totally speculative. Both the amounts are also
somewhat dependent on the percentage usage of the system.
Fewer containers in use would result in lower costs.

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