Why we can’t have a $350,000 biffy in Clergue Park

Concerned about the three-quarter-of-a-million-dollar cost and little time to fit it into the city's upcoming budget deliberations, city councillors rejected a self-cleaning computerized washroom for Clergue Park.

In June of this year, Ward 2 Coun. Lisa Vezeau-Allen and Ward 3's Angela Caputo suggested the idea, arguing that 24/7 self-cleaning toilets are needed by increasing numbers of homeless or precariously housed individuals. 

But at this week's city council meeting, deputy chief administrative officers Brent Lamming and Susan Hamilton Beach said a one-hole self-cleaning outhouse would cost $350,175.

Councillors voted down that idea, and also rejected an alternative motion asking city staff to investigate the possibility of portable potties or a permanent thundershack that wouldn't clean itself.

Some city representatives, including Ward 1 Coun. Sandra Hollingsworth, were able to see self-cleaning toilets firsthand at this year's Association of Municipalities of Ontario conference.

While the self-cleaning washroom would save on maintenance costs, city staff estimated it could take about an hour a day more for general groundskeeping and litter removal in the surrounding area.

"Downtown business owners and business owners across the city are dealing with human waste on their doorsteps," Coun. Caputo said.

"This is a situation, for me, of human dignity. Where are we expecting these folks to use the bathroom?

"There was a lot of talk... about the fear that homeless people were going to use the bathrooms. Where else are they going to go? We don't want them not using facilities, but we also don't want them using facilities.

"So I think that as a society and as a council, we need to figure out how to give these people dignity and facilities."

Caputo said she nonetheless had reservations about the $350,009 cost of a self-cleaning washroom.

"I think that now that we have a cost of the self-cleaning bathroom, I would really like to see a cost for if we were to build a standard, maybe gender-neutral, single stall or or a set of bathrooms," Caputo suggested.

"It's not going to happen for this budget cycle," said Mayor Matthew Shoemaker.

"I suspect staff is probably 80 or 90 per cent of the way through the preliminary budget, which is coming to us fairly quickly, and so trying to get all this stuff jammed in on the fly is not really the right way to do it," Shoemaker said.

"So if it's a motion that were brought in the new year, I think there'd be some willingness on my part to support that, but I'm not willing to support it at this point, given where we're at in the preliminary budget."