The president of the union representing Toronto's garbage collectors is accusing the city of inflating budget estimates in an attempt to make a switch to a private contractor more appealing.

 Monday night at city hall CUPE Local 416 president Mark Ferguson told council's Executive Committee that in 2011 city staff overestimated the cost of garbage collection city-wide by $37 million dollars and by $3 million in the area west of Yonge. It was in 2011 that council voted to outsource garbage pickup in that area.

Ferguson believes the numbers were inflated in order to justify the contracting out of part of the service.

Public works committee chair Denzil Minnan-Wong says those claims are false, and that the reason that budget estimates were higher than the cost of pickup is because there was less trash collected.

City GM of Solid Waste Jim Harnum told councillors at Monday's meeting that if the private collector Green for Life picks up less trash, they will be paid less.

Ferguson, despite indications he would step down from the leadership of CUPE Local 416, says he's now planning on seeking re-election in November. He wants to stay on through the 2014 election.