The City of Niagara Falls is going to proceed with plans to ask the Region if they can go it alone for garbage collection.
Councillor Victor Pietrangelo tells CKTB news the city is confident they can do a better job.
"We can provide the exact same service for virtually the exact same price as we have right now, and we'd like to put in some innovative ideas that are going to help our residents to understand the importance of recycling and the importance of not sending as much to the landfill"
Pietrangelo asked staff to investigate the legalities of opting out in November when the region announced plans for bi-weekly pick up.
An in-house staff report indicated that waste-collection is a service enshrined in the Regional Municipalities Act and the responsibliity of the Region and indicated it would not be easy for the city to just opt-out.
The city hired an outside lawyer to examine the issue and Pietrangelo says if the Region turns down their request, council will then revisit the issue and make a decision on next steps.
He anticipates it could take until March for a formal response.
Regional Council approved every-other-week curbside garbage collection starting in October and is splitting the new collection contract between GFL Environmental Inc. and Miller Waste Systems Inc., replacing Emterra.
Miller Waste Systems would handle Niagara Falls collection.