City council was right to reject a plan to give an uncontested 15-year contract extension to the people who look after downtown trashcans.

There are 300 of the wide garbage-and-recycling bins with advertising on the sides. A company called Eucan empties and cleans them in exchange for the advertising revenues. That saves the city about $100,000 a year.

Eucan wanted to add zoo more cans and change them all to a different model with much bigger advertising panels. The city would make more money (bringing the total annual take, counting the savings on trash-collection, to about $220,000), but it would also be locked in until 2020. A council committee originally approved the idea, but the full council rejected it on Wednesday, deciding instead to seek competitive bids.

As a matter of principle, no public contract should be signed without competitive bidding, especially a contract that will last five municipal election cycles. Besides, $200,000 a year isn't a big saving - documents outlining the deal point out that it is the equivalent of a 0.005 per-cent tax cut.

The deal the committee rejected contained provisions that would let councillors and businesses demand particular blocks get smaller containers for aesthetic or safety reasons. That's a tacit acknowledgement that the bigger containers Eucan was proposing would in some cases be blights on Ottawa's streets. Saving money is important, but council should consider aesthetics, too, when it's time to review the bids on the contract.

Jacques Legendre
Councillor