The garbage that will be generated during this weekend's Dyke March and Pride Parade will be cleaned up by a team of non-unionized city workers and a private contractor that is already used by the city.
"We're not going outside to find a new company when we have existing contracts to help," says Rob Andrusevich, Senior Communications Advisor for the City of Toronto.
The city says it cannot provide exact numbers on how many non-unionized workers will be on hand to clean up after the parade, or how long that clean up could take.
Andrusevich says it took teams four days to clean up the trash left by Pride parade spectators back in 2002. The city was also in the midst of a garbage collectors strike at the time.
More than one million visitors, including droves of tourists, attend Pride Week festivities each year. Garbage is often left strewn in the streets after the events.
The city says it is not sure yet whether the garbage will kept in designated piles on the streets or whether it will get hauled away to dump sites.
The garbage strike is an "inconvenience" but the show will go on, according to Tracey Sandilands, Executive Director of Pride, who spoke to CP24 on Wednesday.
"The City has undertaken that they will be cleaning up after the parade. They will possibly be using non-union staff to do that. We will leave that up to them," she says.
Meanwhile, a group of roller derby players learned their scheduled game at George Bell Arena -- an official Pride event--would be played beside a newly-declared designated dump site declared by the city Thursday.
The group contacted the city, who now says it will ensure that garbage is contained in a small section of the parking lot, so spectators can have parking.
"It's still a dumping site but they're opening up the parking lot for us, which is awesome," says Natasha Jesenak, an organizer of the event, titled the Clam Slam.
The city says it chose the location because it is in a suitable area, which has access to roads and public transportation.
