A pilot garbage relocation project in Ward 3 will be heading for a full council vote in the fall after getting the green light at the City of Windsor's Environment, Transportation & Public Safety Standing Committee on Wednesday.
Committee members approved the recommendation, which called on city administration to conduct the pilot project in the Pelissier/Victoria alley between Tecumseh Road. West and Jackson Street as well as the Dougall/Church alley between Tecumseh Road West and Wahketa Street.
As part of the pilot, if approved by council, garbage would be temporarily relocated from alley collection to curbside collection for a minimum of eight weeks.
Additionally, administration would then report back to council on the information learned during the pilot.
The idea for the pilot comes as the city is looking to completely eliminate garbage collection from alleyways, where possible, to improve collection efficiencies.
Ward 3 councillor Renaldo Agostino also pushed for Pelissier from Elliott to Erie to be included in the pilot, saying he wanted to see it done properly to get the best results.
"I just don't think doing it just to do it makes sense, especially if the point of it is to be a test. I think we should go for the dragon's head rather than pick different areas where we're not going to get our best bang for our buck."
Ward 8 councillor Gary Kaschak says he likes the pilot project, and he's interested in seeing where it goes given the looming decision on garbage pickup overall coming in 2025.
"I think this gives us time, as I believe administration has told us that we can do this pilot project, get a result, and get that report out so that we've got cohesiveness for pickups all in 2025," he said.
Ward 2 councillor Fabio Constante explained how the committee doesn't make final, binding decisions, but rather make recommendations based on the reports they have.
"And those recommendations go to council as a whole, at not the next meeting but the one following that, that's the procedure. So the one following the August meeting is in September, I'm not sure of the exact date, but that's going to be the soonest that this will be heard and a final decision will be hopefully made in September."
The motion was amended before being approved to add in exploring the possibility of including Pelissier from Elliott to Erie as part of the proposed pilot that will head to council for a vote in September.