Courtenay residents will see their garbage user fees increase by $3.55 in 2011.

Council approved an increase of 3.4 per cent in the city's garbage utility user fees Monday.

The increase is effective April 1, which means residents will see a blend of the 2010 and 2011 rates this year. This blended rate will be $142.30 for the average residential unit for the year, which is an increase of 2.6 per cent or $3.55 over last year.

Council sets the garbage user fee rate schedule by bylaw each year to ensure costs for the provision of garbage, recyclables and yard waste collection services are fully recovered on a user fee basis, according to the report from Tillie Manthey, the city's director of financial services.

These services are not funded through the general property taxation levy.

"This is the last of the user fees we charge for; water and sewer rates were set in December," said Manthey. "Because it's a later implementation of that bylaw rate, it becomes a blended rate for the homeowner, and the effect on the homeowner then is an increase of $3.55 for the year, which covers all your household waste, yard waste and recyclables pickup, and that's a 2.6-per-cent increase in garbage rates over the year."

The fee for the garbage service covers the cost of the contractor who provides pickup and transport services, the regional landfill fees for the disposal of the waste and internal costs to administer the service, according to Manthey.

The price index increase used for the garbage collection and recycling service contract is the product of a formula that takes into account the annual change in Consumer Price Index Vancouver, Price Index Vehicles Canada and the Price Index Diesel BC, and, effective Jan. 1, this blended formula results in a price index increase for the city's contractor of 3.4 per cent, she noted.

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