Private company pulls out of deal with city

Triland Excavation had been partner on curbside organics

The city is in a “difficult position” now that it’s not getting a $7.4-million grant from the provincial government to build a local kitchen waste composting facility, said a city spokesman – particularly since the private firm that was going to partner with the city has walked away.

Triland Excavation and Haulage of Keene was going to be the city’s partner in the $15-million project.

The firm was going to build and operate a compost processing plant at the city-county Bensfort Landfill site, while the city was planning to do the curbside collection of organics.

But now the firm isn’t interested anymore, wrote Brendan Wedley, manager of communication services for the city.

“The withdrawal of the grant has caused the private group to drop out of this project at this time leaving the city to move forward by itself,” Wedley wrote.

“The city will need to consider various priorities alongside the significant cost of approximately $15 million to implement a household organic waste collection and processing service.”

No one at Triland was available for comment late in the afternoon on Tuesday.

City staff told the waste management committee at a meeting on Monday that the provincial grant of $7.4 million isn’t coming after all.

The grant was expected from the cap and trade program that Premier Doug Ford’s government has begun winding down.

Wedley also wrote on Tuesday that some money had already been spent on the studies and meetings, primarily by the city’s partner in the project.

Meanwhile the city had also spent some money on items such as application permit fees, Wedley added – although he didn’t state how much.

“The province has asked us to inform them of these costs but there is no guarantee we will be reimbursed,” he wrote.

A recent city staff report stated that the facility could be open by 2020 (whereupon curbside collection of kitchen organic waste was expected to begin).

Currently there’s no pickup of organic waste in Peterborough for lack of a local facility.

The city now composts at a municipally owned property on Harper Rd.

Council’s plan had been to continue composting yard waste on Harper Rd. until the new composting facility was to be ready in 2020.

Meanwhile the provincial government under the Liberals had announced in 2017 that it planned to prohibit kitchen organics from going into landfill sites as of 2022.

City staff told councillors at a meeting early this year that the local composting facility would add about two years to the life of the Bensfort Landfill site.

Coun. Dean Pappas said he was concerned about the implications for the landfill site. He said it’s too bad the province won’t be funding the new composting facility, and that it leaves the city to figure out how to fund it on its own. “It’s still a priority, as far as I’m concerned,” he said.

The withdrawal of the grant has caused the private group to drop out of this project at this time leaving the city to move forward by itself

CITY SPOKESMAN BRENDAN WEDLEY