City of Chilliwack to consider utility refunds for missed curbside collections; Emterra brought in to help

CHILLIWACK – The City of Chilliwack now says council has directed municipal staff to explore options for passing fine revenues on to residents’ utility bills as a result of the significant challenges from the new curbside collection program and its contractor.

In a news release, the city says it transitioned to a new curbside collection program on May 1, 2026 with a new curbside collection contractor, E360S. During this transition, the city acknowledges there have been significant challenges, and many residents have experienced missed or repeatedly missed collections.

The City of Chilliwack now says it is working through corrective measures with the contractor, including fines for missed collections. Due to the inadequate service provided since the rollout date of Friday, May 1, Council has directed staff to explore options for passing the fine revenues on to credit residents’ utility bills.

“The level of service so far has been totally unacceptable,” said Mayor Popove. “We completely understand residents’ frustration, and Council has tasked staff with exploring how we can pass revenue from the fines we levy for missed collection onto residents’ utility bills, so please know that we have heard you, and stay tuned.”

City staff liaise with the new curbside collection contractor twice daily to track their progress as they make adjustments with the goal of attaining consistent same-day service for all routes. This week, the contractor has added additional trucks, drivers, and customer service staff to meet the needs of the community.

However, the city concedes, there is a backlog of waste in need of pickup, so the municipality has arranged for Emterra Environmental to assist with collecting missed recycling, at E360S’s expense. Extra recycling will be accepted in other containers this week, due to the missed collection.

“Our contractor is also responsible for collecting residents’ old containers, and the old bins are not being collected as fast as they need to be,” said Mayor Popove. “We know E360S has fallen short of our service delivery expectations here, and we are looking into every option to correct the situation and get our curbside system back on track.”

For residents who have old green carts that need to be returned to the City through the old bin pickup program, the City will not be applying the monthly fees for these additional green carts until after all the issues with the collection of old carts are resolved.