Facility won't take Toronto's garbage
An expanded waste facility on Carp Road won't take trash from the Toronto area thanks to a deal Ottawa's municipal government struck with the company operating the facility.
Waste Management has provincial approval to accept trash at its new West Carleton Environmental Centre from anywhere in the province, but in negotiating a “host city” agreement with city staff, the company has agreed to substantially shrink its service area to between Durham Region in the southwest, Sudbury in the northwest and all of eastern Ontario.
The draft agreement also positions the city to collect more than $16 million from the waste company during the life of the new landfill.
West Carleton-March Coun. Eli El-Chantiry told the finance and economic development committee on Tuesday that the city received everything it was seeking through the negotiations with Waste Management.
The committee voted unanimously in favour of the proposal, with council scheduled to cast the final vote on Sept. 22.
Tanya Hein, president of the Stittsville Village Association, described to councillors the “strain” and “information void” that has been involved in drafting a hostcity agreement. She said she hoped to see more money coming to the community through the deal.
The city said it believes it's a fair agreement based on fees staff researched in other municipalities, but because those commercially confidential figures are kept classified by those municipalities, Ottawa staff couldn't share the numbers with councillors.
There's no legal requirement for Waste Management to establish a host-city agreement, but the deals have become common practice for municipalities and private operators of landfills.
The new landfill on Carp Road can accept up to 400,000 tonnes of trash annually and has a capacity of 6.5 million cubic metres. The city estimates the landfill will have an 11.5-year lifespan after operations begin.
Under the proposed host-city agreement, the city stands to collect $1.42 million annually in the first year if Waste Management brings in the maximum weight in garbage. The revenue includes a general $3.35-per-tonne host fee; a $1-per-tonne fee applied to waste used as a daily cover, up to 60,000 tonnes annually; and five cents per tonne as a fee to fund community initiatives in the wards of West Carleton-March, Stittsville, Rideau-Goulbourn, Kanata North and Kanata South.
There would be a five-cent-pertonne increase in the fees every five years. How the money should be managed and spent will be the subject of a staff report to council by the end of March 2022.
Waste Management has also agreed to pay $383,600 into a municipal parkland fund and cover the costs of new turn lanes and a truck-climbing lane on Carp Road near the site.
The waste facility takes material from the industrial, commercial and institutional sector regulated by the province. The City of Ottawa is responsible for residential waste and owns its own waste facility on Trail Road.
In 2014, council approved the zoning bylaw change to allow the expanded waste facility. An approved 2015 site plan required Waste Management to ink a hostcity agreement, which has been in development for the past six years.
Operations at Waste Management's previous landfill at the Carp Road site ended in 2011. The dump accepted waste from locations inside the city and from locations in Lanark County.
With garbage processing not happening at the site over the past 10 years, it could be news to some people that there's a waste facility operating that close to suburban Ottawa.
Stittsville Coun. Glen Gower said many residents who are new to the village don't even realize the big hill across from Highway 417 is a dump. In fact, some people have been wondering what ski hill it is, Gower said.