Randall Denley says we need to be realistic. The city isn’t going to save the planet one garbage bag at a time.

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It’s time for Ottawa city councillors to ask themselves a fundamental question: Why is the city in the garbage business when the private sector can do the same job?

The city’s new “master plan” for disposing of our residential garbage imagines that the city must run the garbage show without explaining why. The amount of public money to be spent over the next 30 years is stunning and much of the spending is unnecessary. It would be shocking if the private sector, developing landfill at its own expense, couldn’t offer a better deal.

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There are two elements to the city plan to extend the life of the Trail Road landfill and ultimately replace it. The first part is the cost of either a new landfill or an incinerator. The landfill is expected to cost $536 million, the........

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