Region fires shot across Emterra’s bow
Public works committee exploring options for finding a new garbage collection company
Niagara Region has put the municipality’s garbage collection company on notice.
The message sent by the regional council’s public works committee to Emterra Environmental Tuesday morning was clear: Get it to together or we’ll find someone who will.
Councillors debated if the time had come, given Emterra’s repeated and ongoing failures to collect garbage and recycling on time, to move to a new service provider.
“The fact is if we were in private business, and this was service provide that had these kind of issues, we would have gotten out of the contract a long time ago,” said St. Catharines Mayor Walter Sendzik, who pushed the committee to direct regional staff to start removing routes from Emterra and give them to another company.
In the end, however, the committee stopped short of taking immediate action against Emterra, voting to direct staff to represent recommendations, including cost and legation ramifications of moving to a new provider, at the next meeting in September. Several councillors on the committee expressed frustration with Emterra for consistently missing garbage pickups.
A report presented by Catherine Habermebl, director of waste management services at the Region, showed a dramatic increase in the number of missed pickups by Emterra since April.
In mid-April, Emterra missed less than 50 pickups. That number steadily increased to over 350 by mid-May.
“Between March 19, 2018, and June 19, 2018, Emterra has only completed collection on seven days (10%) on or before 5 p.m.,” the report says.
According to the report Emterra — which was granted a three-year contract extension by regional council in February — has consistent problems with employees calling in off work and vehicles breaking down. The Region has also imposed $465,000 in fines against Emterra between March 2017 and June 2018 for failure to collect garbage.
Moreover, the report says Peel Region is having similar problems with garbage pickups by Emterra.
Habermebl said the Region can choose to give parts of the collection services to another contractor, although she did not have options available for the committee Tuesday. She did say that other contractors would prefer to negotiate directly with the Region rather than be subcontracted by Emterra, she said.
Sendzik said given the ongoing problems, the Region should move immediately to remove routes from Emterra.
However, Fort Erie Mayor Wayne Redekop said councillors needed more information about their options — from removing routes to firing Emterra — before it can take action.
The report will come to the committee on Sept. 4. In the meantime, staff will continue to pursue remedies, including fining Emterra.
Regional Chair Alan Caslin said council should not “beat up” Emterra and there was no need for an “adversarial approach.” Instead, he said the Region should negotiate with Emterra so the company understands it is falling short and find a “winwin” for everyone.
Sendzik, however, said the record of failure by Emterra is clear.
“This is not about finding a win-win-win for everyone,” he said in an interview. “This is about holding businesses that do business with the Region to account because the public holds the Region to account every day.”