The City of North Bay will take over operations at the Merrick Landfill beginning January 1, 2022.
City council voted to take over the landfill’s operation in-house once its contract with Bruman Construction expires at year’s end.
It follows a staff presentation two weeks ago that found after an initial $2 million investment, most of which will come out of the landfill’s reserve fund, the city could save between $180,000 and $200,000 annually over the next 15 years.
The move came with some resistance on the part of three councillors, all of which expressed similar concerns while the topic was at the committee level.
Coun. Mark King took issue with the fact no other options were presented to council, saying he would have like to see the operation be offered to the private sector again.
“What signal are we sending to the business community when in fact we are going to stop the tender process?” he questioned.
Coun. Marcus Tignanelli agreed with King, adding he doesn’t believe the cost savings from an in-house operation would be worth it.
“If someone said to you that you could potentially save 10 percent annually but you have to fork up $2 million upfront, you wouldn’t have a lot of people take that bet,” he said, adding the move makes council look like “know-it-alls”.
Coun. George Maroosis agreed with both King and Tignanelli, saying the cost-savings likely won’t be recognized. He noted the point of the in-house takeover was for the city to take better care of the landfill than a private company, which he feels could be written into a new contract.
“If we want a better quality landfill site, let’s put that in the rules,” he said.
Supporters of the move, such as Coun. Scott Robertson, brought up the fact the landfill is an asset and a liability to the city and it should be properly maintained in-house as it reaches the final decades of its useful life.
“The financial savings was actually a secondary point. The key point was protecting one of our most important public assets,” Robertson noted.
Coun. Bill Vrebosch said he agreed with Maroosis and King that taking over landfill operations in-house would send the wrong message to the business community, but added the landfill is too important to leave to someone else.
“If you lose this one or put it in jeopardy, you’re not going to get another one for a long time,” he said.
Tignanelli, King and Maroosis all voted against the move.
For the next nine months, city staff will now prepare to take over landfill operations, which includes purchasing new vehicles and hiring staff to take over on January 1.
