Eastern Regional Service Board chair resigns, says garbage collection will end

Faced with a plan by the provincial government to let people who live on unserviced roads opt out of garbage collection, the Eastern Regional Service Board says it will discontinue the service altogether, says a board member who has resigned in protest.

"The board has taken the position that we're not going to provide service to a place where people can opt out," said Ed Grant, who was the board's chair before his resignation Tuesday.

"We are opting out."

Grant resigned out of frustration, he said, with a government plan that is impractical and will cost jobs and harm the environment in rural Newfoundland by allowing some cabin owners to opt out of paying the $180 annual fee for garbage collection in a move he said is pandering to cabin owners.

"With this minister in particular, one should never confuse ineptitude with strategic planning," Grant said of Graham Letto, the minister of municipal affairs and environment who sent the ERSB a letter mandating that the board allow homeowners to opt out of garbage collection by April 1.

"There is none."

In his resignation letter, Grant said the government's directive would lead to the potential loss of 15-20 rural jobs and remove more than $750,000 in annual revenue from the regional system by eliminating 7,500 properties from current waste collection services.

History of complaints about garbage collection

The ERSB assumed responsibility for waste management for about 500 cabin and homeowners in eastern Newfoundland in 2009. The board charges $180 annually to property owners living in unserviced areas — for example, owners of cabins on roads that are not paved by the provincial government for trash collection.

In January, the provincial government hired a consultant to look at disputes between the board and people living in unserviced areas in eastern Newfoundland. The collection fees have long been contentious. In early 2019 a cabin owner in Western Bay agreed to pay five years of unpaid garbage collection fees to the ERSB, in just one of the three of four cases against the board that ends up in small claims court each month.

The next month, Letto told CBC News that no changes to waste collection would be made until the government's months-long review of the province's solid waste strategy was completed, likely in December.

But the ERSB said it received a directive from Letto on March 8 requesting the board no longer make waste collection fees mandatory for individuals who own a second residence on an unserviced road. No fee increase for those who continue to pay for garbage collection is allowed, the directive stated, and the board had to submit its plan by April 1.

Most regional service boards, in the province, including the ERSB, are non-profit and therefore aim to cover costs, not make money, and have the best interests of those they serve in mind, said Derrick Bragg, the parliamentary secretary for municipal affairs and environment, during question period Wednesday.

Board response

On March 13, Grant sent a letter to Letto outlining the Eastern Regional Service Board's expected consequences of the changes, including rural job losses, improper waste disposal and reduced revenue.

Grant's letter outlined other concerns about the plan, including issues identifying which houses have paid fees in areas without marked roads or official addresses. It's expected that more municipalities would see waste disposed at their curbside, he said, which would increase their own costs without additional revenue coming in to cover them, or that people would dump trash in improper sites.

The changes to waste collection were put into place by the provincial government without proper consultation, Grant said.

"The policies they've now asked us to put in place, they're not practical."

The cost of covering waste disposal now that some residence can opt out will fall to municipalities, he said, instead of individuals, and the higher costs will have to be covered somewhere — for example, through the Robin Hood Bay tipping fee.

Regardless of whether or not individuals opt in or out of the garbage collection service, the board's contractor costs will be the same, Grant said. Those costs must still be covered, and that will become more difficult when some residents opt out of paying the garbage disposal fee and others cannot be charged more to make up the difference.

The government continues to review waste management strategies for the entire province, Bragg said Wednesday, and that includes its unserviced roads and back country roads.

"Because someone lives in an unserviced area, doesn't mean they're going to put a pile of waste in the woods," he said.

'He's simply been given his marching orders'

In his March 13 response letter to Letto, Grant said the provincial government's most recent directive appeared to be coming from an advocacy group of cabin owners with complaints about the trash collection.

Grant rejected any suggestion that his opposition to the changes are based in his own political history. He hasn't been involved with the Progressive Conservative party in 25 years, he said, and the ERSB has 20 remaining board members from all over the province and of differing political stripes.

"I can assure you that the Liberals are just as frustrated as the PCs."

Letto's directive is a matter of trying to appease disgruntled cabin owners ahead of a coming election this year, Grant charged.

"He's simply been given his marching orders, I believe, to solve a political problem," he said of the minister.

CBC News contacted Letto and the Department of Municipal Affairs and Environment for comment on Grant's resignation. At publication time, no statement was yet available.

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