Councillor Questions Motives Around Landfill Report Delay

“The report on the landfill as part of the solid waste management plan is long overdue,” Councillor Brian Swanson said at the October 19th final regular meeting of the present Council.

Councillor Swanson wanted to stress that the plan regarding the landfill has been coming for years but had yet to materialize in front of Council.

“We have been waiting for this (the Solid Waste Management Plan) and dealing with this for over five years particularly around the landfill. Actually it is probably seven or eight years and I think we are into the second consultant,” the veteran councillor said adding that three years prior Council had done a consultation with the City Engineer about the landfill.

Councillor Swanson quoted a December 7, 2012 report that indicated the City had a verbal approval to expand the present landfill so long as certain conditions were met. He said Council had been waiting to long for a report on something that had been discussed and approved in principle by the Ministry of the Environment.

“The City will be able to expand into the expansion area and the Ministry of Environment will amend the City’s permit to operate a landfill provided a liner is installed in the expansion zone,” he said reading a report to Council.

An almost identical report had been presented to Council in 2013, 2014 and 2015 each time by a different engineer, he said.

“I keep bringing the points up every year and we keep getting a delay we have a consultant for it. It is my firm belief the agenda is for a new landfill somewhere else even though we have the available land,” he said. “It will be an issue for our new Council. But for anyone who follows municipal politics you know that new landfills are extremely volatile issues that will no make us any friends anywhere.”

Documents show if the City had spoken to the Environment Ministry that officially it was not known to the Ministry until early 2016. Documents which seemingly contradict what Council had been told on an annual basis since 2012.

In a February 19, 2016 letter, obtained by MJ Independent through a Freedom Of Information (FOI) request, Donald Howe an Environmental Protection Officer from the Environment Ministry wrote that the issue had “recently (been) brought to the Ministry of Environment’s attention...and possibility of relocating the site.”

This was despite the claims made to Council as far back as 2012 the Engineering Department had been speaking to the Environment Ministry and were verbally approved to expand the existing landfill so long as certain conditions were met.

Page One of the February 19, 2016 letter to the City

The February 19, 2016 letter also wanted to know the life expectancy of the existing landfill.

Page Two of the February 19, 2016 letter to the City

The February 19, 2016 letter went on to state that once the decision had been made to expand the present landfill that an independent environmental review must be carried out. The letter stated what the review would have to encompass in order to receive approval.

This letter has never been part of any official report to Council.

Councillor Swanson stated there was, in his belief, a hidden agenda to have the new landfill located elsewhere in the RM and not at its present location.

“It is my firm belief the agenda is for a new landfill somewhere else even though we have the available land with an existing weigh station, existing scales that would add to the long term plan.”

The letter from the Environment Ministry does state that the City was at least considering the relocation of the site as one of options they were exploring as far back as 2016.

In the documents obtained through the same FOI the City the estimated in August 2011 the remaining lifespan was five years. In their 2016 report to the Ministry the City estimated there were 3.7 years remaining in the present landfill’s lifespan.

At the present time the existing landfill has an expected lifespan of five years.

Although a contradiction to the 2015 estimates it needs to be noted during this time the City has initiated a city-wide residential recycling program, diverted cement to the City Yards for recycling and increased tipping rates to out of town residents/businesses to discourage use of the landfill.

Excerpt from the 2016 report about the City of Moose Jaw landfill