Hamilton councillor cleans up his community

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A Hamilton city councillor is getting up close and personal with some trash.

Some may remember the scandal that muddied the reputation of the city’s waste department. Aidan Johnson is hoping to make some changes to both the reputation of the department, and make garbage collection in this city more efficient.

Johnson took some health and safety training courses, put on the uniform and picked up the trash this morning. He says it was physically demanding and smelly, but it will help him look more deeply into some much needed changes.

The ward one councillor is also the vice chair of the city’s finance audit administration committee. He’s looking at what changes are needed to make sure the waste department isn’t wasting any money.

Johnson says GPS devices will be installed in all garbage trucks within the next year to monitor all activity; he also wants to make sure garbage collectors are doing their jobs safely. During the garbage scandal a year and a half ago, the public raised concerns about workers cutting corners to get the job done quickly.

“That’s the kind of corner cutting that leads to injured workers, and pay out from the city because the city is legally obliged to take care of injured workers. There’s incentive there for the city to encourage workers to take their time, not cut corners and do everything a safe way.”

Johnson says part of his study of the waste department is to see if garbage routes need to be redesigned so that it takes a workers full shift to complete it safely and efficiently; and if they’re done early, what other tasks can be assigned during their shift.