Item - 2025.IE23.1

Infrastructure and Environment Committee recommends that:

1. City Council direct the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services, with the support of the General Manager, Fleet Services, to bring the City's mechanical litter removal (litter vacuum) operations in-house, to be performed and managed by City staff, when the City's existing agreement for Mechanical Litter Removal (Request For Quotation number 6033-19-0187) for downtown Toronto (East Contract) and agreement for Mechanical Litter Collection (Request For Quotation number Doc3060658546) for the west-end of Toronto (West Contract) have ended respectively.

2. City Council authorize the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services and General Manager, Fleet Services starting in 2025 to make any necessary adjustments as defined in the Financial Impact section to their Divisional capital, operating and reserve budgets, as well as amend their Divisional staffing complement to implement Recommendation 1 above.

3. City Council direct the General Manager, Solid Waste Management Services continue to work in collaboration with the General Manager, Transportation Services to ensure that, where based on availability and operational requirements, mechanical litter removal staff are redeployed during snow events to support the timely clearing of ice and snow from Toronto’s roads and sidewalks and other priority locations such as parks and community centres.

The purpose of this report is to report back to City Council with Solid Waste Management Services' review and analysis of potential service delivery options for the City's mechanical litter removal (litter vacuum) operation which is part of the City's integrated litter program. This report also recommends a service delivery model change to the currently contracted portion of the litter vacuum operations. It presents timelines, operational requirements, financial comparison estimates, and other considerations (resulting from extended producer responsibility transition for Blue Bin recyclables) for the Solid Waste Management Services Division to bring litter vacuum operations in-house once the existing contracts end. The East Contract[1] expires December 31, 2026, and the West Contract[2] expires March 31, 2027.

[1] In this report, Request For Quotation number number 6033-19-0187 for downtown Toronto is referred to as the East Contract.

 
[2] In this report, Request For Quotation number Doc3060658546 for the west-end of Toronto is referred to as the West Contract.