Uncertainty over provincial rules has city staff favouring a short-term contract for garbage pickup to give it more flexibility, even if it comes with a higher cost.

A report going to the city's environmental protection, water and waste management committee next week recommends the city consider a three-year contract starting in 2020.

If councillors approve this short-term deal it would mean an approximately $10 per year per household price hike in 2020, another at about the same price in 2021 and a smaller hike in the final year.

If not, staff would turn to a five-year deal with the option for a two-year extension.

The city has previously done longer contracts for curbside garbage pickup, such as the current deal lasting seven and a half years at approximately $34 million a year that expires May 31, 2020.

Staff argue that could leave the city struggling because of changes the previous provincial Liberal government brought in.

New rules

Those changes include standards for diverting waste from landfills, plans to standardize recycling across municipalities and having manufacturers pay for the cost of recycling their products.

There is also a plan to ban organics from landfills.

City staff said if they are locked into a five-year contract those kinds of changes could be hard to bring in, as well as any changes the city itself might want.

"While a standard tender for a five-year contract under current service standards might yield lower costs, [it would] keep those standards in place until 2025 at least," reads the report.

They said it is not clear how the changes the Liberal government passed in legislation will actually bear out in reality.

The report also said it is unclear if the new Progressive Conservative government will keep the approach in place.

Its climate change plan was released in November and is still in the consultation stage.