If a tree falls in the forest...

...and that forest is in the North End, does it make a sound? Nope, but it sure does if it's in South Winnipeg.

And if that forest isn't a forest, but poor garbage service, it makes a sound within 10 days.

"The department made it clear there would be some kinks that would have to be worked out the first little while. It's not unreasonable to give them a reasonable amount of time to work out the kinks. After that, there are penalties that should be implemented on the contractor," Katz said  ... If problems such as missed collections persist, the city could take work away from the company, she added. - From the Winnipeg Free Press

Now, I wrote a post back in August, specifically about the NEW garbage service, for which I know some of my neighbours are still having trouble with theirs (well over the one month grace period). I have also been questioning, literally for years, asking someone to get back to me about the specifics of the contracts that the City has for garbage pickup. In fact, I am still waiting on a response from Councillor Eadie to an email I sent months ago.

What specifically have I been asking? I've asked what the penalties are for the contractor not fulfilling the contract. For example, when I, on many many MANY occasions have called in bulky waste to be picked up, only to have it continue to sit there and then follow up with 311 only to be told that that case has been marked as "closed" (or completed). I've questioned why we are paying a contractor who gets paid per piece* (or rather, ticket, which contains up to 6 bulky items) who fraudulently claims they have done the work. *To be fair, I've not actually been able to verify that this is how their contract is set up, however it has been expressed verbally to me that the system runs along those lines.

Can you imagine the uproar if you tried any of this cr@p at your job? "Oh hey boss, I know I'm supposed to have this report in today, I'll get to it within a few days, I'm just running behind" and a few days later "what do you mean all the pages of the report are blank? I totally completed it, file closed. What's that, do it again and you'll give me the same wage to do what I already got paid to do, but didn't?" Sign me up to work for the City please!

This type of garbage nonsense has been going on in our Neighbourhood for years, but hey, the rest of Winnipeg goes 10 days with poor service and the Mayor is calling for action. He must not be friends with the owner of Emterra.