Valoris presents a recovery plan
This week the board of directors of the waste management centre Valoris, presented its 2019-2021 recovery plan to the representatives of the facility’s two partners, the City of Sherbrooke and the Haut-saint-françois MRC.
Valoris President Steve Lussier, Vicepresident Robert Roy, the other members of the Board of Directors and Denis Gélinas, Acting Executive Director, unveiled the details of the recovery plan on Thursday at a meeting in East Angus.
Denis Gélinas, Acting Director General of Valoris, gave a brief history of the situation Valoris is currently facing to put the recovery plan in perspective. He also explained at length the various aspects of the recovery plan. He concluded his presentation by specifying the actions to implement the recovery measures and the resulting 2020-2021 financing plan.
In a recent statement, Valoris President and Sherbrooke Mayor Steve Lussier commented, "This plan was long overdue and I am proud to have tabled it with my colleagues on the Board of Directors today. It is the result of a titanic work carried out by the Valoris team under the direction of the Executive Director, Denis Gélinas, but also by my colleagues on the Board of Directors.”
Lussier added that the recovery plan was an important milestone for Valoris. "We asked the Auditor General of the City of Sherbrooke, Andrée Cossette, to help us get a clear picture of the situation. My colleagues on the Board of Directors, the Valoris team and myself needed a good dose of courage and humility to make the necessary decisions. With the plan that has been presented tonight, I am sure we are on the right track. From now on, we can all work together and look forward.”
Valoris, also known as the Régie intermunicipale du centre de valorisation des matières résiduelles du Haut-saintfrançois et de Sherbrooke is owned and governed 50% by the MRC du Haut-saintfrançois and 50% by the Ville de Sherbrooke.
It was created in February 2010 with the mission of implementing a solution to divert materials that could be recycled or recovered from landfill.
Inadequate pricing placed Valoris in a precarious financial situation that has forced the Régie to impose three increases that now set the cost of treatment at $237 per tonne for partner members, $92 per tonne for non members and $133/tonne for other customers.
The main focus of the Valoris recovery plan is to turn around the financial situation to achieve sustainable profitability in the short term and to allow the organization to adapt to being resilient.
An envelope of approximately $1,476,000 is reserved in the 2020 operating budget for the implementation of the recovery plan.
The plan is also based on the financial obligations that allow Valoris to repay its loans without affecting the pricing of partner members.
The latter will be fixed at the consumer price index:
2019; $237/tonne
2020: $241/tonne
2021: $245/tonne
The recovery plan aims to operate all sorting lines on the basis of financial profitability. It also responds to several points addressed in the Auditor General's report last July.