The Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority has approved a 4.1 per cent increase to its 2021 Operating Budget.
An increase in tipping fees from $38 to $39 per/tonne along with a $511,250 hike in the fixed cost fees assessed to Windsor and seven other municipalities were also approved at Tuesday night's board meeting.
Fixed cost fees are based on population, with Windsor seeing a $221,863 increase to $4.62-million in 2021.
According to the report, expenditures are projected to increase from $28.2-million in 2020 to $29.2-million in 2021, resulting in a $2.6-million deficit.
General Manager Eli Maodus says there are several wild cards that could affect that deficit, including revenue from a hauling contract.
"So we have until November or December to determine or find out if that will come into fruition," he says. "That customer has been a long time customer, but we don't know; three's $700,000 in net revenue that is potentially questionable."
Maodus says revenue from contaminated soil is also hard to anticipate.
"A simple example is a rehabilitation at a gas station. There are tanks under the ground full of gas, they may leak when there's some work done on that sight, that soil would have to be brought to the landfill for disposal," he added.
He says any shortfalls will be shored up from the $44-million Stabilization Reserve, but there may be more money available from other areas to maintain that balance.
"A couple years ago we did reallocate from that stabilization reserves," says Maodus. "So we do have other reserves that we could possibly reallocated back to this reserve."
Maodus says administration has an eight year plan to be deficit free by 2027; the 4.1 per cent increase was already projected in that plan.