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This article was published 29/9/2016 (1454 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg is looking to dump Emterra as its primary garbage collector.

The current garbage-collection contracts with Emterra Environmental and Progressive Waste Services expire next year, and a report released Thursday recommends two new companies take over the job.

Emterra also made a bid for the contract, under its official name Halton Recycling Ltd, but was unsuccessful.

"They were entitled to bid, and they did bid, but they didn’t win," said water and waste committee chairman Coun. Brian Mayes.

The public service is recommending the city sign a multi-year contract with Miller Waste Systems Inc. for almost $15 million per year for the northwest quadrant of Winnipeg. Meanwhile, a contract with GFL Environmental Inc., worth $9.7 million a year, is being recommended for the city’s southeast quadrant; both would go from Oct. 1, 2017 to Jan. 31, 2025.

This is roughly one-third more than the city’s previous garbage collection costs, increasing to $24.7 million from $18 million.

Mayes said it is still unclear what this will mean for Winnipeggers’ $56 annual garbage-collection fee. The new contracts are set to begin Oct. 1, 2017, so the city will not have to address the cost difference until the 2018 budget, he said.

"Reading the report I thought, OK we are going from 18 (million) a year to 24 (million), therefore the household fee will go from $56 to $76, but it is way more complicated than that," Mayes said. "We just don’t know yet (how the difference in cost will be made up), so we are going to have to talk about it."

Multi-Material Stewardship Manitoba reimburses the city for up 80 per cent of its recycling costs, but Mayes admitted that agency could reduce the percentage it gives the city, given the increase in costs.

"We were alerted to that, but it didn’t stop us. We stopped on the lowest bid we could on the first and the second-lowest on the other," Mayes said. "It was a concern, but we still had to go ahead and award it. There’ll be pressure on the property taxes... and separate pressure because we don’t know how much we will be reimbursed."

The non-profit, industry-funded organization currently pays the city $113 per tonne of recycling materials collected. The payment rate is set each year to offset up to 80 per cent of the cost of a recycling program.

Multi-Material’s executive director Karen Melnychuk said it is too soon to say what this will mean for the funds it gives the city.

"We have just got the report... so we need some time to review and ask our own questions and meet with the city," she said.

The city’s largest waste collector has been plagued with complaints of missed garbage and recycling pickups since it signed on with the city in 2012.

A 2013 report said Emterra failed to collect garbage more than 16,000 times across Winnipeg and missed more than 15,000 recycling pickups. The firm faced a $75 fine every time it missed a pickup. It later came out those fines totalled as much as $450,000.

A report released this summer said there were almost 38,000 complaints to 311 about garbage, recycling and yard- waste collection last year.

A request for comment from Emterra was not returned.

"I am not going to slag Emterra, we do have to be in a business relationship with them for another year," Mayes said. "It did get better over time in my ward. There were problems at the start, definitely."

GFL was the lowest bidder out of four for both quadrants; however, the administration was directed to not give the two contracts to the same company.

Both companies will be responsible for the collection of garbage, recyclables, yard waste and surplus waste for their area.

The report also recommends looking at potentially revising the collective agreement with the Canadian Union of Public Employees, which represents most Winnipeg civic employees, to see if city workers could deliver garbage and recycling collection at a cost comparable to the private sector.

It notes "an innovative option" such as multi-family garbage collection or a compost pilot project could be awarded in-house in the future.

While CUPE Local 500 president Gord Delbridge would welcome city workers taking on a composting pilot project, he said he is disappointed the city is continuing to rely on the private sector for the majority of its garbage collection. He said CUPE was not allowed to make a bid for the contracts.

"The city should be doing its due diligence at looking at all options all the time. It is their responsibility," Delbridge said, insisting that the public sector could do the job much more cheaply.

Winnipeg is currently divided into four zones for collection of waste and recyclables: Emterra does the bulk of it, with a contract for three zones. Progressive Waste Solutions has the contract for the northwest quadrant.

Under the new contracts, the city will be divided into two areas, creating a more even split between the two firms.

The report and recommendations will be considered at Monday’s water and waste committee meeting.

If the contracts are approved, the city will pay over $150 million to Miller Waste and $99 million to GFL over the next seven years.

— with files from Aldo Santin

kristin.annable@freepress.mb.ca