Westover: A little Ottawa teamwork, and a garbage problem got fixed

Solving the neighbourhood garbage crisis showed that compromise can be found when people are willing to sit around the table and explore alternatives.

Published Jul 13, 2024 • Last updated 4 hours ago • 2 minute read

Neat rows of closed garbage bins replaced the open-garbage collection platforms at the condo near Suzanne Westover’s house, summer 2024. Photo by Suzanne Westover

Not long ago, I wrote a column in the Citizen lamenting the disgusting, open-air garbage pads dotting the condo parking lot behind our home. After more than two years of trying to effect positive change by calling bylaw and lodging complaints, going public with this systemic problem was a municipal Hail Mary.

So imagine my surprise when my doorbell rang a week after publication, and I was greeted by the smiling face of Barrhaven East Coun. Wilson Lo. (In my original article, I’d invited city council to partake in a tongue-and-cheek lunch of mouldering baguettes and half-gnawed chicken wings, which were regularly deposited in my yard by offending corvids who obtained them from those open garbage pads. I didn’t think anyone would come!)

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Of course, I didn’t offer Lo a buffet fit for a crow. But I did rush him upstairs to our spare bedroom, so he could see the seething mass of garbage with his own eyes. He’d already taken a walking tour the length of Chapman Mills Drive, and was in agreement that the current garbage collection protocol wasn’t meeting anyone’s needs.

Happily, he came bearing good news.

He’d spoken with the condo board, and, as luck would have it, weekly collection from designated bins would cost the condo corporation less money than the levy paid for the current set-up. The condo board would place wheeled, lidded bins between each building, providing residents convenient, all-day access to garbage disposal.

We were promised that the first day of this new collection would begin in mid-June, so we held our breath in anticipation. (Also, the smell of garbage still hung in the air). The changeover was anticlimactic. Bins were delivered and residents slowly began to use the pads less often.

Fast-forward to a Tuesday (garbage day) in July, and the results are nothing short of extraordinary. The once-overflowing pads are devoid of detritus. The new bins are full come collection day, with garbage neatly stowed, away from prying beaks and claws.

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The crows, denied their primary food source, are going further afield and aren’t the constant, shrieking, low-flying presence that had terrorized the neighbourhood.

It’s such a simple adjustment, yet it yields an outsized return. It’s the kind of shared problem-solving, between an elected official and a corporation, that demonstrates compromise can be found when people are willing to sit around the table and explore alternatives.

It’s easy to feel like we live in a society where systems don’t work, or are designed to frustrate us to the point of capitulation. Seeing this example of proactive collaboration take shape is a reminder that we can all effectively advocate for change.

Properly housing garbage may seem like a silly thing to celebrate. It’s not going to change the world. But it’s a win, both practically and politically.

Practically, because the whole neighbourhood is cleaner, smells better, and is less likely to attract disease-carrying pests and rodents.

Politically, because it’s easy to forget that people elected to office aren’t inherently powerful. We put them there, and — when they work to earn our trust — we keep them there.

That’s something to crow about.

Suzanne Westover is an Ottawa writer.

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