City council has overcome poor communication from city administration regarding a contract with a community business and has managed to hammer out a new deal that isn’t so financially burdensome on the company.
The City of Moose Jaw has had an agreement with Potters Canada for the recycling and disposal of glass dust, powder and debris at the landfill since 2009. However, a council report explained, in 2018, city hall determined that the glass powder was no longer a benefit at the landfill or for use in constructing temporary roads.
Since Potters was made aware of this only in December, city administration recommended that the company be charged a rate that scales up during the next 12 months, the report continued. This included charging the current $21 per tonne fee from January to March, followed by $69 per tonne from April to June and then $80 per tonne from July to December.
However, during the Feb. 1 regular meeting, council voted 6-1 to charge Potters Canada a landfill disposal rate of $21 per tonne this year, $40 per tonne in 2022 and the full in-town commercial landfill fee of $80 per tonne in 2023.
Coun. Kim Robinson was opposed.
Business presentation
Potters Canada would prefer to have no increase at all, especially since it would hike disposal costs by nearly 300 per cent, or an extra $78,000 in expenses, plant manager Gilles Lajoie said during a presentation.
In 2020, the company paid $36,666 in landfill fees.
The company recycles 12,000 tonnes of glass — 40 per cent is clear glass bottles and 60 per cent is window panes — annually, with roughly 5,000 tonnes coming from SARCAN distribution centres across the province. About 1,700 tonnes of glass dust is deposited at the landfill.
The Moose Jaw shop has 20 employees who are all well paid, Lajoie continued. Furthermore, the company has spent major money on capital projects in the last five years to increase its production.
The company plans its new budget at the end of August, so since it knew its landfill contract was expiring in December, officials reached out to city hall in late August, the plant manager said. It was around Dec. 2 when city hall emailed a response saying the contract wouldn’t be renewed, which was a surprise.
“My ask would be to leave the fees as they are. I understand that’s not the most popular solution,” said LaJoie.
Phasing in the cost increase would give the Moose Jaw business the time to adopt new recycling technologies, he added, which could reduce, modify or change the dust by melting it, so it’s usable and saleable as glass.
Council discussion
“Potters is definitely one of the best-kept secrets in our city as far as what your industry is all about … ,” said Coun. Crystal Froese. “I think people don’t quite realize how elite this area is as far as the industry (goes) and how lucky we are to have this company in our city.”
Council should work with the company to enhance recycling and economic development, she added. This could include helping the business acquire grants related to recycling and green initiatives.
Most councillors expressed similar comments about their disappointment with the lack of information from city hall about this issue — including an email from Dec. 14, 2020 — while discussing it in private during the Jan. 25 executive committee meeting.
Forcing Potters Canada to absorb an almost $80,000 increase in expenses would be huge, Coun. Heather Eby said. Council talks about economic development and business retention, but this is not how to retain a long-time community business. She thought this issue should have been raised during the budget talks in December.
Eby added that this situation with the poor communication was "not acceptable."
The regular issue council faces is that city administration does not provide communications from residents and businesses promptly, said Coun. Dawn Luhning. She thought council needed to discuss this problem since it’s inappropriate to make decisions about businesses without having the letters and emails from them.
“We surprised (Potters Canada) with the increase. And here we are trying to bring businesses in, but we’re not supporting the ones we have … ,” said Coun. Jamey Logan. “Do they need to pay more? Absolutely. Do they need to pay tomorrow? No.”
This action was a disservice to a long-time company in Moose Jaw, agreed Robinson. However, his preference for increasing the company’s landfill fees was to phase in the full amount in 2024 instead of 2023.
The next regular council meeting is Tuesday, Feb. 16.
