Dumping garbage in Regina just got a little bit tougher. The city is trashing hours at the landfill.
“It’s very inconvenient to say the least,” landfill user Mike Harder said.
During summer, the landfill is usually open until 7 p.m. everyday. At the end of May, it changed back to winter hours, closing at 5:30 from Monday to Saturday and all day on Sunday.
“The landfill hours was one of the reductions due to the tough choices council had to make,” Janet Aird, City of Regina’s waste diversion services manager, said.
Rick Cornish said he’s had to turn down landscaping jobs because he has nowhere to stash his trash.
“If I’m working on weekends then I can’t go do another job because I’m full of garbage,” he said. “It’s a waste of time, I mean those are days we could be working.”
“A lot of the people work during the day and this makes it difficult to get their yards done and so on. And nowadays a lot of people are renovating and they need that access to get their stuff in. I was a bit disappointed,” landfill user Clint Norman said.
Landfill users said Saturdays appear to be a lot busier now that Sunday is no longer an option.
“Why can’t you be open at least six hours on a Sunday or past 5:30 on a weekday?” landfill user Mike Harder said. “Most people work Monday to Friday at least until five. When else are you going to get your stuff to the landfill?”
The city is saving $61,000, but some users say they would rather see a rate hike, if that would mean longer hours.
“That’s probably a good idea,” Norman said. “We have to cover the costs, and we have the labour, and it’s only fair.”
The landfill will have reduced hours until at least next year, when council will decide whether to extend them during 2018’s budget deliberations, Aird said.
The landfill is currently open 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. Monday to Saturday. It’s closed Sundays and statutory holidays.