$18K to run public washroom has Charlottetown councillor asking why

Charlottetown Coun. Mike Duffy says the city is paying too much to run a public washroom.

"The city of Charlottetown is paying $18,000 a year for a washroom that is not on city property and is connected to commercial business," Duffy said.

The public washrooms in question are located at the ground level of Peakes Quay Restaurant in Charlottetown.Duffy said the washroom isn't openyear-round, typically onlyfrom about May to September.

"Which would be four or five months. Now, $18,000 that is about $3,000 $3,500 a month to maintain a washroom. I think the price is pretty heavy."

Liam Dolan owns PeakesQuay Restaurant and the washrooms. He said he put the public washrooms in 15 years ago through an agreement with the city. Dolan said his staff maintains the washrooms and isn't sure why the city would want to set up its own.

He also said he isn't sure the city will find building a new facility and hiring someone to clean it cheaper than $18,000 a year.

"For them to hire someone to just go clean it, it will cost more than that," he said.

Dolan said the price did go up last year by about $3,000 to $4,000 and that was because new restaurants near Peakes Quay caused more washroom traffic.

"The price went up because of extra labour," Dolan said.

Dolan said he alsorenovatedthe facility due to COVID-19 by installing things like taps people can use with their elbows.

Dolan added he is unsure where the city would place another washroom if they were to build on itsown.

Duffy said the city owns the nearby Confederation Landing Park and it might be provide a good area for the city to build and maintain its own public washrooms.

"The public works staff, we have staff on 24 hours a day patrolling the city keeping it clean. That could be part of their duties."

"I never got an explanation of why so much," he said. "I didn't think it was money that well spent."

Duffy isn't sure how much it would cost for the city to install its own washroom, but thinks in the long run it would cost less than the agreement with Dolan.

"I couldn't imagine it costing anymore than $20,000-$25,000 to set one up," he said.

He said he doesn't see the maintenance cost being more than the city is already spending to maintain the washrooms by Peakes Quay.

Duffy said the city already maintains several public washrooms in Charlottetown and adding another shouldn't be a problem.

Duffy said with the two-year agreement passing Monday night at a city council meeting, the municipality is on the hook for $36,000 to keep the privately-owned washrooms running.

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