Council makes it official, punts Emterra to the curb
It's official: Emterra Environmental is out as Winnipeg's primary collector of household garbage and recyclables.
City council voted 10-6 Wednesday to approve a pair of new waste-collection contracts that will end Emterra service across most of the city — and Progressive Waste Solutions garbage collection in one quadrant of Winnipeg — in October 2017.
In their place, Miller Waste Systems will begin collecting garbage and recyclables in the northwest half of Winnipeg in October 2017, while GFL Environmental will collect waste in the southeast.
Both contracts would run from Oct. 1, 2017, to Jan. 31, 2025. Initially, it would cost the city $24.8 million a year. The total seven-year cost may wind up at $251 million.
Couns. Matt Allard (St. Boniface), Shawn Dobson (St. Charles), Ross Eadie (Mynarski), Jason Schreyer (Elmwood-East Kildonan), Devi Sharma (Old Kildonan) and Russ Wyatt (Transcona) voted against the contracts.
All of those councillors except for Sharma have expressed concerns in the past that the city did not give enough consideration to conducting the work in house, using members of the city's largest union, the Canadian Union of Public Employees Local 500.
CUPE 500 president Gord Delbridge said following the vote he is disappointed and expressed concerns Winnipeg will wind up spending more money in the long run through the use of private waste-collection contractors.
He urged Winnipeggers to pay attention to the way their councillors vote.
