Its to be discussed. I heard minnan-wong say it live on tv.
Want to play the long term game? Ok. Privatize garbage east of yonge will result in approx 15 million per year in savings. Over 30 years that's 450 million(without thinking inflation). That's slightly less that half of the progected cost to the city for the new subway. Or could basically pay off the Gardiner. Or about 55% of what we have to do in repairs for social housing.
Simple math. I can play that game too. Combination of some cuts, some hold the lines(no more than say 1 to 1.5% cost of living increases for all city employees over the next 10 years) and new revenue tools(hello again hospitality tax!) And a few regular tax increases and all the infrastructure can be cleared. But some don't want their little personal "thing" cut. Well too bad. Everyone needs to pay. Everyone.
You play a very flawed game my friend because every study that I have read comes to the same conclusions which are:
1) Initial privatization invites low bids to secure the contract resulting in little to no profit for the waste hauler.
2) Over time, to compensate for the above, bids rise and thus the savings to the taxpayer erodes and erodes even reaching to zero and below zero. (See the Hamilton experience where in-house collection is actually less costly that private)
3) Outsourcing the totality of solid waste services means that the City's entire solid waste infrastructure is laid waste hence the city is left extremely predisposed to service interruptions, bid rigging, rising costs and so forth. Basically an oligopoly emerges that would control and attempt to manipulate the market.
In conclusion the best service delivery module for solid waste collection is a public and private method competing with each other as is the case with Hamilton. (Studies have proven this.)
Your premise regarding wanting to 'play the long term game' is faulty because the costs of the unneeded subway is an astronomical $2billion just to start and only can go one way .... that is UP!
Whereas the savings from privatizing solid waste services to the entirety of the City of Toronto initially seem promising ..... however those savings eventually vanquish to less than zero.
Similar to Robbie ...... promising the sun and the moon yet eventually disintegrating to less than zero.