By her own admission, Ms Harding states that when the garbage system preparation first started, two men were paid $20 (each) per week to clean the pads. That is a total of $40 per week. Multiply that by 52 weeks and that is a total of $2,080. This was in the year 2000.
Fast forward to 2009/2010, and the budgeted amount approved by the board is $60 per week ($3,120) plus a contingency for extra pickups that are required, for a total of $3,500 budgeted.
Lets see....double the $2,080 and that would equal....hmmm....$4,160? That is a far cry from the $3,500 that is budgeted, and nowhere near double the amount paid in 2007 or 2008 (which the audited amounts were $2,746.00 and $2,709 respectively) or 2009 (unaudited).
If you use the $3,120 figure being the anticipated cost, that is an increase of 50% over 11 years, (or 4.55% per year on average).
Now put that aside for a moment while I throw a few facts and figures at you.
From the year 2000 to the year 2009 the following changes have taken place in the world:
*Minimum wage in Ontario has gone from $6.85 /hr to the current $9.50/hr (as of March 31st, 2009) - % INCREASE = 38.6%
*The consumer price index (CPI) for the 9 year period - INCREASE of 20.94%
*The average inflation rate over the period is 2.13%/year
* The average price of gas in Canada in 2000 was 71.5 cents per litre, in 2007 it was $1.01.8. - % INCREASE = 42.4%
So as you can see, costs for many items increase over time, not just for Costello Gardens garbage service.
And even other costs did not increase over time, the last time I checked we were in a free market economy, where service providers were free to charge what they want for their services, and if they want to increase the cost of the service, they have that option. If the increase is approved by those who receive the service, then the relationship continues. If not, then the relationship ends. Simple as that.
I know that the response to this statement will include the words "conflict of interest" and that issue will be addressed in a later posting.
This post is just an explanation of why the rates increase, and also proving once again the falsehood of Ms Harding's claims that the fees have almost doubled in the last two years.
