Resident says mountain is becoming 'Garbage Bag City'

"Twice a week garbage is picked up, once a week we have the recycle bins out, and five days a week the gardeners put out their bags of garbage — which is totally against the law, but which is never enforced," Farla Grover of Oakland Avenue told city council last week.

"I was told to call Public Security," she added. "I've done it many times, usually to be told, 'Oh, but we have to catch them doing it.' And I said that's why I'm calling you. They're doing it right now."

According to Grover, "the whole top" of Westmount mountain is littered with garbage bags filled with garden debris. "I feel like I live in Garbage Bag City," she said. "I don't see the point of beautifying our properties if the whole place looks like a garbage dump."

Grover said Surrey Gardens — which is a two-lane boulevard with a wide, grassed median in the middle — has become a favourite spot among gardeners who dump their refuse. "Surrey Gardens is supposedly a beautiful island," she said, but "all it's used for is gardeners' garbage bags."

She questioned whether the gardeners are being issued tickets, because if they were, "they wouldn't continue doing it … I have phoned many times while they were there doing the work and putting it out. They are not ticketed. The law is not enforced."

Director General Bruce St. Louis said the City initiated a new program several weeks ago, through which gardeners working in Westmount are stopped and checked to see if they have a required municipal permit. "Those that aren't licensed by the City are issued (tickets)," he said.

"They must have a license to operate in the City … When they're licensed they get all kinds of information from us to say what the rules are. So the first thing is to weed out who is operating in the City who isn't legitimately here. So that's a start, because you've got to find out who's causing this problem.

"The second is that Public Works does a have a fairly aggressive education campaign to advise the gardeners who are licensed what the rules are," he added. "I can assure you that Public Security patrols starting from when the maintenance season starts. That's one of their priorities to pay attention to that."

St. Louis said the City recently launched another program allowing residents to put garden waste out for curbside collection from April through September on Wednesdays. According to that program, the waste must be in clear plastic or paper garden waste bags made expressly for the purpose.

"The residents might put it out on Wednesdays, (but) the gardeners put it out from Monday to Saturday, every day of the week," Grover nonetheless insisted. "So if you pick up on Wednesday and they come and do their cleaning on Thursday, that garbage is there for a few days. At least two or three."