As waste collection fees rise, councillors presented with options to reduce costs and extend current

contract with Emterra

Also, provincial changes to Blue Box program will exclude commercial, industrial and agricultural customers from curbside pick-up, starting in 2025

By CasandraTurnbull

Garbage and recycling were the centre of discussion this week at the Administration and Operations Committee meeting on February 20th .

County staff were asking for council support to extend the current waste collection provider’s contract after an unsuccessful RFP failed to attract any new contractors.

Higher than budgeted waste collection fees and changes to the Blue Box program have prompted the County of Brant to nix the idea of organic waste collection as just one way to cut costs and save some money.

During the meeting, councillors were presented with two staff reports one for the waste collection contract extension, the other to review changes to the Blue Box Program

The first discussion centred around the current solid waste collection contract, which expires on December 31, 2024 A Request for Proposal (RFP) for a new contract closed at the end of 2023. Only one submission was received from Halton Recycling Ltd, a.k.a Emterra Environmental, the county’s current collector. Their only bid was 106% greater than the County’s budgeted

$1,431,010, despite cost savings Emterra will see through provincial regulation changes to the Blue Box Program.

According to Emterra, their higher bid is attributed to a 50% increase in staffing costs over the last seven years (since the start of this current contract), rising costs in vehicle maintenance and fuel, higher insurance charges and interest rates and inflation.

Most of the councillors present were not pleased to hear of the increased fees, given waste collection services have lacked consistency within the last year in particular Many say they field constant calls from constituents to report curb-side services were not picked up as planned, and it’s happening on a regular basis, councillors noted. Councillor John Bell said he’d like to see that issue addressed in the next contract Councillor John Peirce agreed

“Emterra has a contract to fulfill, and it seems to be happening more often in the last 6-8 months (unfulfilled pick-ups). What I would like to understand, even if we just went back the last year, how many times have we invoked the clause so we can let constituents know it is not going unseen.” Peirce was referring to a clause in the contract where

Emterra is fined for not keeping up with collecting curbside pick-up as scheduled

Rob Walton, General Manager of Operations for the County of Brant, defended Emterra to an extent, stating it (missed pick-up) doesn’t happen often and usually there are extenuating circumstances, such as vehicle breakdowns because of aging equipment. But Walton agreed that releasing that information requested by Peirce would be beneficial to satisfy public curiosity “It’s not as often as you would think,” said Walton.

Councillor Peirce was also concerned as to why no one, other than Emterra, put forth a bid. Five waste collection agencies picked up the tender but only Emterra submitted a bid.

“What have we learned from this tender; how can we do things differently?” asked Peirce.

Walton and County staff representatives advised one area to reconsider in future contracts would be certain clauses surrounding manual labour, versus allowing more automated labour

That would entail spending more to upgrade infrastructure on the trucks (to add robotics) and delivering specialized bins to residents. This is an attractive feature for contractors because it’s safer for staff and helps them retain staffing levels, which translates to more consistent service in a shorterperiod of time.

The Administration and Operations committee gave county staff the approval to negotiation a Solid Waste Collection contract extension with Emterra to May 31, 2027. To reduce costs, the county could negotiate any of the following changes to the contract: weekly pick-up in urban areas and biweekly in rural areas, biweekly pick-up county wide, one side of a road pick up in designated areas, a six- day collection cycle, a reduction in yard waste collection and discontinuing the Christmas tree pick up. Updates on that negotiation process will be back before council for final approval

In that same recommendation, Councillors also voted to postpone any explored opportunities to expand the Solid Waste Collection Program to include a Source Separated Organics Program. They’ll revisit the organics recycling program in a new RFP that will be authorized in 2026. This also allows time for people to adjust to changes coming to the Blue Box program.

Councillor Lukas Oakley was not pleased to hear the organic waste collection was postponed.

Oakley questioned the numbers behind adding organic waste collection to the contract extension, noting no solid figures were provided in the staff report. He asked Walton for more detailed information in the coming weeks.

New provincial regulations to the Blue Box program are coming down the pipe too. These changes will exclude ineligible sources, effective January 1, 2025, from curb-side blue box pick up.

‘Ineligible sources’ includes industrial, commercial, not-for-profit organizations, county-owned facilities (libraries, arenas, community centres, firehalls) daycares, places of worship campgrounds and farms.

These exclusions, will undoubtedly lead to more recyclables in the landfill, say Councillor Steve Howes and Councillor Oakley.