KAMSACK — Kamsack’s garbage and recycling strategy was discussed at town council’s regular meeting on Feb. 23 as well as being the main conversation at a public meeting which council called for the following evening.
“Because of the rising costs for garbage and recycling, which are only going up, we know there are issues,” Mayor Beth Dix said following the council and public meetings. “Council is looking at ways to reduce these costs while assuring that it is fair for the people.”
Without any changes in 2026, approximately $250,000 will have to be taken from municipal taxes to pay for garbage and recycling, said Chief Administrative Officer Barry Hvidston.
“Council held the public meeting in order to make sure we talk to the public, look for options and allow everyone to ask questions and offer suggestions,” Dix said. “In a way, we’re over a barrel. Council is backed into a corner and wants public input to decide how to proceed.”
At the meeting, Hvidston worked with a slide presentation describing the current situation, beginning with the engineering and construction of the community’s new $1.5 million transfer station, costs associated with the landfill closure and increases to curbside and front end garbage and recycling costs.
Hvidston showed how costs to the taxpayer have been subsidizing the service by about $106,000 in 2018 to $119,000 in 2025 and that the costs are expected to rise to $246,000 in 2026.
“The starker contrast is the difference between commercial and residential,” said information Hvidston provided at the public meeting. “When we look at only commercial versus residential, in 2018, the commercial side was paying for less than half the expenses, while residential was meeting their expenses. By 2025, commercial was paying approximately one quarter with residential nearly paying double what they should be.
“With the increase in dump fees in 2026, residential utility bills will be very close to matching the expenses. In order for commercial to pay for itself, the town would have to charge around $500 per business per month on the utility bills plus water and sewer charges. This amount would be whether a business has one bag of garbage per week or fills a dumpster.
“Therefore, council is proposing that the town remove the garbage and recycling portion of the utility billing for commercial businesses and bill businesses directly,” the information said. “By doing this, businesses will be able to look at their garbage and recycling needs and determine what suits their business. This would include who dumps in the containers and the number of times a container is picked up by OSS (Ottenbreit Sanitation Services).
For businesses to reduce costs they may determine what pick up schedule they need or have multiple businesses dumping on one container, it said.
At council’s regular meeting, it was decided that council would not return to the CSO (Community Safety Officer) program so the bylaw enforcement officer will remain in bylaw enforcement and will not be given the added responsibilities of a CSO.
After having the CSO program in the community for two years, it was suspended in 2025 while the program was looked at closely, Hvidston said, explaining that basically, the CSO program has a bylaw enforcement officer do that work in addition to having other responsibilities that include traffic stops and other provincial acts.
These added responsibilities require a special vehicle, specific equipment and additional licensing which are expensive, almost twice as expensive as is a bylaw enforcement officer, he said. Council does not believe the additional costs justify the small additional benefits the Community Safety Officer’s program would provide to the Town of Kamsack.
Council agreed to close about a half a block of Wallace Street adjacent to Victoria School on Feb. 27 to allow for students to hold a street hockey tournament.
Authorized to attend the SUMA (Saskatchewan Urban Municipalities Association) convention in Regina April 12 to 15 were: Mayor Dix, councillors Easton Moline, Ona Eliuk and Robyn Tataryn; Hvidston, and Dana Grieve, assistant administrator. Kelsey Rauckman and Karl Morck from public works will be attending the convention’s trade show for one day.
Council agreed to hold its first budget meeting on Mar. 16. It is expected the process would require two or three such meetings before council arrives at its 2026 budget by the end of April and have tax notices issued by mid-May.
Council approved an initiative of the Kamsack Curling Club which proposes to undertake in-ice advertising at the Broda Sportsplex with the bulk of funds raised to go towards the upgrading of the curling side of the facility which could include upgrades like improved lighting in the rink and work in the mezzanine area.
