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Residents are left wondering if the City of Saskatoon put its green carts before the horse after a disruption to plans for the new compost program, which is still set to being May 1.
While some have refused to accept the bins when they were delivered to homes, the new problem may be bigger: where to put all the compost after it’s collected.
On Monday, the Rural Municipality of Corman Park council voted with a clear eight-to-one majority to decline a discretionary use application from Green Prairie Environmental (GPE), the company the City of Saskatoon has contracted to operate an organics composting facility as part of the green bin program.
Organics collected through the new program were meant be composted at the Corman Park facility, which was meant to be located next to the GPE landfill that has operated in the RM for many years.
On Wednesday morning, the reeve of Corman Park told John Gormley that the council voted against the application because of the location.
“It’s unfortunate it came down kind of to the 11th hour,” Judy Harwood said.
She explained the composting facility is supposed to receive 20,000 tonnes a year of organic waste material. The contract for the facility was awarded to GPE by the City of Saskatoon in 2019.
Harwood said the late vote was held after council realized that GPE needed to apply for a permit from the RM to construct the building.
The site in question, Harwood explained, used to be classified as a dump, but was changed to a regional landfill when it was bought out in 2014. It’s presently being used for some recycling work, according to Harwood.
She said creating the new compost facility there would impact an area where many people live.
“I had lots of calls and emails from residents,” Harwood explained.
“We have a number of hamlets out there. It’s a highly, highly residential area.”
She said the Crossmount community is located right across the road from the proposed facility site.
Residents have voiced concerns about smells, pests, traffic and “everything you can imagine when you’re bringing 20,000 tonnes of organic material into the area,” Harwood said.
Harwood said she has not heard from anyone with the City of Saskatoon, though believes administration with the RM is trying to work with the city on the issue.
The reeve said she believes there is somewhere suitable within the RM that could accommodate a facility for GPE and the city, but said it should be in more of a commercial or industrial area.
“We want to make this work,” Harwood said. That, she explained, means doing the zoning correctly and addressing the concerns from residents.
Richard Weldon, president of Green Prairie Environmental, declined to comment on the situation in an email sent on Tuesday, following the RM council meeting.
Saskatoon’s city council also discussed the concerns arising from this “hiccup” — as Ward 9 City Councillor Bev Dubois called it — on Wednesday morning.
Angela Gardiner, general manager of utilities and environment for the City of Saskatoon, reported to council that without the RM’s approval for discretionary use to GPE, the city is left working out alternate arrangements.
Gardiner said an alternate third party will process the materials as GPE would have, keeping the program on track until a plan can be developed by the contractor to fulfill the terms and requirements of its agreement with the city.
Dubois asked whether the city’s environmental responsibilities were still being upheld — Gardiner confirmed they were — and whether taxpayers would see any additional costs because of the disruption to the compost program plans.
Gardiner confirmed that any costs associated with interim or contingency plans are the responsibility of GPE through its contract with the city, as well as covering any other incremental costs to the city for the duration of the seven-year contract.
A news release from the city indicated all eligible residences will have their green carts by Friday.
The city previously noted that residents may be able to opt out of the program at some point in the future, but will still be required to pay for the program to the tune of $6.73 each month.