GPE president caught ‘by surprise’ by green cart contract dispute

Green Prairie Environmental (GPE) president Richard Weldon is hitting back at the City of Saskatoon for declaring his company in default over a contract on an organics processing facility.

Speaking from Toronto, Weldon said it was news to him that the city considered GPE in default, because his company had actually been working with the city over the last few months to build an alternative organics composting facility on city property by next May.

“When you found out, we found out,” he said.

“The City of Saskatoon issued this notice of default, which caught us completely by surprise. We’d been negotiating with the City of Saskatoon ever since we were turned down by (the Rural Municipality of) Corman Park back in April.”

Weldon said when a Discretionary Use Application for a composting facility on its existing landfill site was denied by Corman Park RM council on April 24, GPE had a backup plan.

“We provided the City of Saskatoon with an alternative of where to take the material in the meantime. We worked with the City of Saskatoon (and) met with them almost weekly to come up with an alternative site,” he added.

That temporary solution included taking compost to the Corman Park landfill until the new composting facility was up and running.

Weldon said that between May 1 and June 15, the company had found a site in Saskatoon and signed a lease for it. To him, that indicated the city’s willingness to work on an alternative solution.

Weldon said GPE worked with engineers to get the site prepared, and invested “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”

“But we needed a … public meeting. And because we don’t own the land, we had to get the City of Saskatoon to OK the public meeting,” he said. “They never OK’d the public meeting. We kept asking them, ‘When are you going to approve this?’ ”

Weldon said the city never did commit to or schedule that public meeting.

“Then we heard all of a sudden they declared us in default and negotiations stopped … How could we be negotiating with the City of Saskatoon in good faith on a new site that we already had a lease signed?” he asked.

The city has since hired Loraas Disposal to process the compost material from the green cart collections program in the interim. According to Brendan Lemke, the city’s water and waste operations director, the city is now looking at whether to continue constructing its own facility and have a contractor operate it, or whether the city needs to re-tender the processing contract.

“(City officials) chose to go to Loraas, which is a Cadillac solution costing a fortune. But they’re the ones who negotiated the contingency plan without our knowledge, without out understanding (and) without our approval,” said Weldon.

Weldon said his company isn’t about to pay for that, calling the alternative a “diamond-studded” solution.

“I just don’t think that’s right. That’s not fair (and) that’s not what the contract says,” he said.

According to Lemke, increased costs so far associated with having Loraas process the compost material are between $1 million and $2 million.

A request for an interview with Lemke about GPE’s contentions was denied. Instead, a statement was issued by Angela Gardiner, the city’s general manager of utilities and environment.

“The City has declared GPE in default under the contract,” she wrote. “The City does not agree with GPE’s version of events, but the contractual dispute is ongoing and to protect its position, the City declines to discuss specifics.

“We would direct you to our October 25 news release on the matter and the administration report being presented at Council’s Standing Policy Committee on Environment, Utilities and Corporate Services meeting on November 1.”

Weldon said he has struggled to maintain a positive relationship with the city, but has in the past had “good dealings” with staff.

“I have a feeling that someone else came in and made the decision for them that changed everything,” he alleged.

He said even though his company suffered a setback in Corman Park, he’s still prepared to offer a cost-effective solution.

“We’re not walking away from anything. It seems the city seems to be walking away,” he said.