The City of Moose Jaw will continue to take cash at the landfill and could accept credit or debit cards in the future, according to city administration.
The idea of alternative payments to cash at the landfill arose after Coun. Scott McMann inquired during the Feb. 25 city council meeting about a timeline or plan to offer more ways to pay at the dump. Administration responded to his inquiry during the April 22 regular meeting by producing a report.
“We don’t have a plan to expand our payment options. That is really inconvenient to the public at large,” he said. “My original inquiry asked for timeline and there is nothing here. We have no definite plans.”
The problem at the landfill is with connectivity of the internet and Wi-Fi, explained city manager Jim Puffalt. There are ways to get around that, such as installing a booster to increase the signal strength.
According to the report from the department of financial services:
• The parks and recreation department accepts payments at the Kinsmen Sportsplex, YaraCentre, Natatorium and city hall. As of June 1, the sportsplex, YaraCentre and Natatorium will accept all forms of payment including debit, credit, cheques, EFT and cash.
Payments made to the parks department at city hall will continue to be cheque or cash only. The department is also working towards online payments with the hopes of rolling it out over the calendar year.
• The engineering services department plans to increase the payment options at the landfill to include debit, credit and cash. There are several challenges to this implementation including a lack of internet connectivity, potential need to upgrade landfill scale software and some upgrading of the municipality’s cash receipting software.
• The financial services department is planning to expand payment options at the main floor cashier area to include credit card payments for some of the smaller payments taken at the cashiers. The acceptance of credit card payments for taxation and water payments will continue to be directed through the municipality’s website and payment partner Plastiq, which allows for recovery of the credit card fee.
The demand for an expansion of payment options is growing rapidly and the financial services department intends to create and administrative policy to guide and provide consistency in future expansion, the report said.
The focus at this time is the expansion of payment options in the parks and recreation department related to their implementation of new booking software. Once that has been accomplished, areas such as the landfill and city hall cashiers will be implemented.
The next regular council meeting is May 13.
