City officials and a union leader are encouraging west Toronto residents to call 311 or a new hotline if they have complaints about garbage collection now that the service is in the hands of a private company.

Green For Life (GFL) Environmental officially took over garbage pickup for 165,000 homes between Yonge Street and the Humber River (District 2) on Tuesday morning.

The task was previously carried out by municipal workers, but city council voted 26-12 last October to privatize collection in the district.

Because it is a new contract, the city said there may be collection delays at first, so residents were asked to leave their garbage at the curb if it hadn’t been picked up by late afternoon and to call 311 if there are any service complaints.

At a news conference held to usher in the change, city Coun. Denzil Minnan-Wong said the city had not received any complaints about the day’s collection, as of 10 a.m.

Minnan-Wong, chair of city hall's public works and infrastructure committee, said the city normally receives 50 complaints by that time.

Despite that claim, MP Olivia Chow tweeted her displeasure with the service her mother received.

"My mother is in an extra bad mood today. The garbage hasn't been picked up yet - the wonder of privatization," Chow wrote on Twitter shortly before 9 a.m.

Pat Dovigi, Green For Life’s president and CEO, said his company’s routes are different from the city’s, so people may notice their garbage is picked up at a different time than in the past.

Minnan-Wong brushed aside Chow's complaint, saying it is in line with Chow's support of organized labour.

He said city staff are conducting spot checks to monitor GFL's progress to make sure customer service goals are met.

“(We) will be watching very carefully … to make sure the residents of District 2 get the same level of service or better than they received previously," Minnan-Wong said.

As of 10:30 p.m., approximately 500 homes had still not had their garbage removed.

In an email sent to CP24, GFL said that trucks would be redeployed in the morning to collect the remaining refuse.

Ford misses news conference

Mayor Rob Ford, whose election campaign included a promise to privatize waste collection, was scheduled to speak at the news conference but failed to attend because he was "under the weather," Minnan-Wong told reporters.

In a statement, Ford said the switch to privatized garbage collection in west Toronto is a "great day" for the city.

"Acting on my campaign promise to contract out appropriate services and to save the city money, I am pleased to welcome GFL as the waste collection provider in this area of the city," Ford said.

In a news release, the city said it will save $11.9 million in the first year of its seven-year contract with GFL, with additional annual savings of $11.1 million after that. The city has the option to extend the contract to eight or nine years. If that happens, the city will save more than $100 million, Minnan-Wong said.

Union reaction

At a news conference Tuesday afternoon, the city union president didn’t mince words on what the change will mean for Torontonians.

“Today is a bad day for all residents of Toronto, and a sad day for working people across the city,” CUPE Local 416 President Mark Ferguson said during a separate press conference held shortly after 2:30 p.m.

In addition to criticizing the service change and the affect it will have on waste collection in the city, Ferguson also unveiled a new hotline for Toronto residents to report service issues, including shoddy service, mixing of waste streams and dangerous driver activity.

Customers are encouraged to call the “Waste Watchers” hotline at 866-419-2227 to report any concerns.

“Local 416 will do everything in its power to ensure that they have they necessary oversight to be held accountable,” Ferguson said of the new hotline.

GFL, which already provides waste collection in Etobicoke, and city officials are hoping the only change residents notice is the colour of garbage trucks.

Collection schedules and the types of materials collected and containers used remain the same.

Residents are asked to put their containers on the street by 7 a.m. on their scheduled day. Garbage is supposed to be collected by 5 p.m.

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