Mayor Popove says city could outsource old bin pickup, but can’t just return to former company Emterra

CHILLIWACK – Chilliwack Mayor Ken Popove says all options are on the table as the City of Chilliwack continues to grapple with the ongoing curbside collection debacle affecting multiple parts of the city.

In comments shared with 89.5 JR Country host Glen Slingerland Thursday morning, Popove said the city has hired former contractor Emterra to assist with curbside collection, and urged E360S to immediately add more staff.

“The rollout has been less than spectacular, let’s just say that,” Popove said. “From all parts of the city, they missed this, they missed that, they didn’t come back to pick up. We’ve hired Emterra to come and pick up the recycling just so they can catch up. That’s on their dime (referring to E360S). They’re bringing in three more trucks, we’ve really pushed for a swamper on the trucks.”

Popove said the model employed by E360S is not ideal.

“If you’ve watched how they work, they pull up to a set of cans, the driver has to get out, walk around the truck, hook on, put them up, get back in the truck and drive 30 feet.”

When pressed by Slingerland about fully automated trucks, Popove said they’re currently on order. He also pushed back against the idea that the city can just bring back Emterra.

“People are saying online go back to Emterra. Well, it’s not that easy. We’re gonna continue to work with these folks,” he said, alluding to E360S. “We’ll probably be laying out some fines. People aren’t getting the service they’re paying for. We as council have instructed staff to see how we can reimburse some monies to residents.”

As it relates to old bins, Popove said the city could contract with a different company to have those retrieved.

“They were supposed to be picked up. We talked in council on Tuesday (May 19) and said, let’s maybe contract that out and send them the bill. Because there’s cans all over the place,” Popove said. “It was an interesting week with the garbage stuff there. I’m really hoping for a quiet next couple weeks. It’s gotta get better. Man, my inbox is just overflowing.”