Mayor Rob Ford’s decision to outsource garbage pickup west of Yonge St. has been vindicated.

Between February and April, the district where a private contractor now collects household waste generated far fewer complaints than the two districts in which municipal workers continue to do the job.

In the average week over that three-month period, the city received a mere 12 complaints per day about the service provided since August by Green For Life Environmental East Corp.

By contrast, the city received 26 complaints per day in the government-run zone from Yonge to Victoria Park Ave, known as District 3. It received 38 complaints per day in the government-run zone from Victoria Park eastward, known as District 4.

The city could not immediately provide February-to-April complaint figures for government workers last year in GFL’s district between Yonge and the Humber, known as District 2. But Jim Harnum, general manager of solid waste, said the figures were higher than those from this year under GFL.

GFL was awarded a seven-year contract that is expected to save the city $11 million per year. Its performance has improved dramatically in the nine months after a bumbling first week in which its errors prompted more than 300 complaints per day.

The contrast with the government-run districts has been particularly stark since mid-February. The week of March 12, GFL’s best week in District 2, the city received only seven complaints there. It received 30 complaints in District 3, 48 in District 4. The next week: nine complaints in District 2, 21 in District 3, 36 in District 4.

“It was one of the largest startups in Canadian history, and I think it’s gone as well, if not better, as anyone could have expected or hoped for,” said GFL chief executive Patrick Dovigi. “There were obviously a lot of naysayers at the beginning, a lot of negativity around it, but given the cost savings and our ability to execute on what we said we were going to do, it’s met or exceeded the city’s expectations.”

Harnum has overseen the GFL contract and praised the company repeatedly. But he also cautions against a rapid move to outsource collection east of Yonge. The split system, he said Monday, has allowed the city to successfully prod the unionized city workers to work more efficiently and take less sick time.

“We’re seeing that the staff are responding. They realize that, ‘Hey, we’re going to lose our jobs if we don’t be part of this team,’ ” Harnum said.

Though the city’s performance east of Yonge continues to lag behind GFL’s, Harnum said the unionized workers have improved markedly. And he said that other cities have experienced problems after they have surrendered all leverage by relinquishing their trucks.

“I’ve said this right from the beginning — I think there’s value in having in-house as well as contracted out. That gives us the ability to keep the contractors honest,” he said. “There’s other municipalities that have fully contracted out, and sometimes they’re at the contractor’s mercy.”

GFL also collects household waste in Etobicoke under a mid-1990s council decision.

Ford, who has a year and a half left in his term, has said he will not move to outsource the two districts east of Yonge until after the election, no doubt eager to use outsourcing as a wedge issue against a labour-backed challenger like Olivia Chow.

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Council voted 32-13 in 2011 to outsource the zone west of Yonge, as Ford wanted. Harnum suggested that councillors may be reluctant to proceed with a tender for east of Yonge once they see the results of his department’s work with city employees.

“If we’re not successful, then yeah. Contracting out is working. . . . But I think if we keep on the trajectory that we are on, councillors, both left and right, will be satisfied that they’re getting good value with the in-house staff as well.”