Council gets update about recycling contract 18 months after its renewal

It has been more than a year since the municipality renewed an agreement with its recycling contractor, but a report about that renewal has only now come to city council.

The City of Moose Jaw entered into a recycling collection services agreement with Loraas Disposal Services Ltd. on Oct. 1, 2015. The contract included an initial three-year term with two extensions of two years each. The first extension commenced on Oct. 1, 2018, and will conclude on Sept. 30, 2020.

If the municipality wants to enter into the second two-year extension, it would have to do so before April 1, 2020.

Council discussion

City council became aware of the renewal during its Oct. 15 regular meeting when city administration presented a report about continuing with the agreement. Coun. Brian Swanson was the only councillor to point out the agreement renewal had occurred one-and-a-half years ago. “I really don’t understand why we have this report tonight when we’re halfway through the extension,” he said. This report, he continued, should have come to council 18 months ago for review; it is now of no value.

“If we were to say tonight no (to renewing the contract), we would be responsible for the second year of the contract. So why is this report here?” he added. This was an oversight, in all honesty, explained Josh Mickleborough, director of engineering services. There was staff turnover at city hall when the agreement was signed. The end date of the contract was not entered into a calendar and was therefore missed. The contract was extended simply by virtue of continuing to do the work.

Given the current recycling market worldwide, plus the cost to buy out the contract and the bins, city administration thought it was an easy decision economically to continue with the contract, he added.

That explanation would have been much better to hear at the beginning of the presentation than toward the end, said Swanson, especially since council is being asked to support an extension. Council later voted 5-2 to refer the recycling contract extension to the 2020 budget discussions. Swanson and Coun. Chris Warren were opposed.

Recycling contract background

There are 12,500 carts that are part of the recycling program. As part of the completion of the initial term, the municipality could have bought all the carts for $50 each, or $625,000 in total, according to a report from city administration. At the conclusion of the first extension in 2020, the cost per cart would drop to $20 each and the buy-out fee would be $250,000. There would be no cost to buy the carts at the end of the second-term extension. A grant from the Multi-Material Recycling Western organization has helped offset the recycling cost for residents. Last year’s grant was $187,579 while this year’s grant is expected to increase to $340,290.

Moose Jaw charges $7.09 per month for recycling collection, compared to other Saskatchewan communities that charge between $5.09 per month and $9.25 per month, the report continued. Recycling tonnage has increased by only 0.2 per cent over the three years of collection, increasing to 1,344.4 tonnes annually from 1,341.4 tonnes.

The cost to dispose of household waste is 18 cents per kilogram, while the cost to recycle is 74 cents per kilogram, the report added.