Garbage collection has been an on-going debate in the city of Toronto on whether or not the city of Toronto should privatize garbage collection. Currently, in Toronto, garbage collection services are run by the city in 3 districts. Districts 1, 3, and 4 are run by the city, while district 2 is run by a private contractor called Green For Life (GFL). Success of privatization in other cities, even in district 2, has brought up the debate on whether or not the city of Toronto should fully privatize garbage collection. Firstly, private contractors will give better quality service. In addition to that, privatization will result in more content customers. Lastly, with privatization, the city will be able to save more money. It is clear that contracting out garbage collection services will lead to better service, happier customers, and will save the city money.
First, the privatization of garbage collection will make for better services. Critics have pointed out that the trade-off for the cost savings will be lower cost services but, GFL has a very strong incentive to do quality garbage collection service. Firstly, within the $142 million contract, there is a fine of $150 every day for each truck that does not finish collecting on time
(Lafleur, 2012). This is a reason for GFL to perform up to the standard. Next, GFL will be held accountable if the company has damaged property (Lafleur, 2012). This will make sure that GFL workers will perform at a very high performance, and if GFL does not meet its obligations, the company will be in breach of contract (Lafleur, 2012). Lastly, GFL can be fined by the city if GFL does not improve garbage collection service (Lafleur, 2012). It is very unlikely that if a city department does a poor job that anyone will get fired (Lafleur, 2012). These are very strong incentives for delivering high performance service for private contracts like GFL.
In addition to the quality service private