Its never going to be popular when there's a new fee where one wasnt previously and its a healthy thing for there to be scrutiny...... but this is a hard debate to have without more info on the costs to operate that part of the city and where specifically the fees collected go. If landfill/sanitation are losing money or expenses are going up and there's no other way to recover that cost then the money has to come from somewhere. If on the other hand its a chance to take in money in one department to indirectly pay for something in another department then maybe its a different story..... though being an optimist I'll go with guessing its the former.
I personally feel that as much as there's been progress made with doing things like streaming council meetings, this is an example of the fact that the city (and my councillor) could still do a lot better at outreach and engagement on these kinds of decisions. The old-school way of making decisions (not just speaking of municipal government) is to include a note on an agenda a few days before, then have it discussed and approved. Then when people express concern after-the-fact you get the old "you should've been there when it was discussed and approved". In this day and age there are so many opportunities to connect with people who have day jobs, families to raise, etc. I have a lot of trust that council is doing their job to make decisions with the best information possible and this may very well have been the best decision possible, but personally I'd love if my councillor sent out say a monthly email survey to get feedback on topics that are expected to come up. Then I'd get a better understanding of what's going on, what decisions are being made and that mine and my neighbours' priorities are taken into consideration as part of the wider decision being made (not saying that isn't the case here). I dont think your average person wants to micro-manage every single decision by referendum or run the city into debt up to its eyeballs but there is still a bit of a feeling of disconnect between decision-maker and constituent and IMO the technology is there to close the gap and at the very least have these things come as less of a surprise to more people.
Edited by Adam, 2017-01-04 14:57:14