The Thompson Recycling Centre is closing from March 20 to April 12 - its fourth total suspension of service in 15 months - after being back up and running since Feb. 17.
There is a silver lining, however, this time, notes deputy mayor Harold Smith, a day one member of the first recycling board of directors in July 1997 - and a member again now. This is the first of the four shutdowns that is a planned shutdown and not an emergency one as the prior three were, for issues ranging from rodent mice infestation, a filthy lunchroom and other worker health and safety issues, including protective clothing, which caused workers to walk off the job sparking the first shutdown in December 2008.
A of Dec. 31, 2008 - the most recent figure available - the Thompson Recycling Centre had an accumulated deficit of $269,446, says Carol Taylor, the city's chief financial officer.
The figure today is probably closer to $350,000. The city, which contributed $72,100 to the Thompson Recycling Centre's budget last year, is effectively saddled with the deficit, whatever the number, for all intents and purposes.
The recycling centre had a budget in 2008 of $437,134, Taylor said.
The Manitoba Product Stewardship Corporation
(MPSC) pays a Municipal Support Payment of $138 per tonne for materials from the Thompson Recycling Centre , plus an additional $40 per tonne for Northern transportation assistance, which is a huge part of the revenue picture in offsetting shipping costs south to Winnipeg and fluctuating commodities price for recyclables. Without the Manitoba Product Stewardship Corporation's support through what effectively serve as two subsidies, the Thompson Recycling Centre's accumulated deficit over the last 13 years would be much higher than it is.
As part of the Northern Regional Recycling Initiative, Churchill, Nelson House, Norway House, Gillam, Split Lake, Leaf Rapids, the Wuskwatim Generating Station construction work camp, Paint Lake, Cross Lake and Wabowden have all, at one time or another, sent their recycling to the Thompson Recycling Centre on a fee-for-service basis and are supposed to reimburse the organization for the cost of handling their recycling, but some communities are in arrears.
The only ones being charged for the service currently are Leaf Rapids, Gillam, Paint Lake and Wuskwatim and the "outstanding amounts are less than $100," owing from those communities, Taylor said, except for Wuskwatim, which "currently has an amount owing of $1,400," she said.
The Wuskwatim Power Limited Partnership, a legal entity comprised of Manitoba Hydro and the Nisichawayasihk Cree Nation (NCN), is developing the 200-MW Wuskwatim Generating Station. Manitoba Hydro is providing construction and management services to WPLP, in accordance with the project development agreement signed in June 2006.
A general partner, 5022649 Manitoba Ltd., which is a wholly-owned Manitoba Hydro subsidiary and governed by a board of directors, which consists of four Manitoba Hydro and two NCN representatives, carries out the business affairs of the Wuskwatim Power Limited Partnership.
The Thompson Recycling Centre has continued to ship excess recyclable materials, including some of which came in contaminated, and some that ended up contaminated due to being exposed to the elements, to the local garbage dump, operated by the Local Government District (LDG) of Mystery Lake, off Highway 6, south of Thompson, Smith confirmed March 12.
"In order to accommodate an even greater increase of recyclable material anticipated with the introduction of new recycling carts, the Thompson Recycling Centre will temporarily suspend service from March 20 to April 12," said Valdine Flaming, the City of Thompson's communications officer. "This three-week period will allow the TRC to reconfigure the facility where it processes and sorts recyclable material. Residents are asked to store as much of their recyclables as possible as the TRC and local drop off depots will be closed."
While the recycling centre is run by an arms-length board of directors, their payroll and certain other administrative functions are processed by the City of Thompson on their behalf, even though they are not city employees and oversight is limited, yet they both receive their major sources of funding annually from the city. In fact, the City of Thompson is exercising more oversight than ever, as Mayor Tim Johnston hinted should happen in January, and is clearly in the driver's seat now.
A press conference last Friday to explain the impending shutdown this coming Saturday was held at City Hall and Smith, Flaming and city manager Randy Patrick were the ones in attendance to offer the explanations. Other than Smith, wearing his dual hat, no other Thompson Recycling Centre board members or management staff was in attendance for the press conference.
Smith also confirmed that some large high-density multi-family housing complexes in the city - including 10 Yale, owned by Allied Rentals, will see tenants lose their recycling pickup come March 20. Smith pointed out there are now three communal recycling depots around the city, including one in Eastwood at Cliff Park, as well as at the centre itself on Severn Crescent and in the parking lot of the recreation centre off Thompson Drive North, where 10 Yale residents can take their recycling themselves and drop it off after March 20.
Residents at 10 Yale and elsewhere last November lost their individual unit garbage pickup when the city switched to automated waste pickup with their new carts. Allied Rentals brought in communal dumpsters and passed at least some of the cost of providing those dumpsters directly though to tenants in the form of rental increases, as soon as they were legally permitted to do so.
Smith said March 12 he wasn't aware that had happened; several other councillors expressed similar surprise earlier. Still, Smith noted that under the city's garbage bylaw, 10 Yale is considered a commercial residential location that the city does not have to now provide garbage pickup to and therefore won't be.
It is possible 10 Yale, or other high-density housing areas, may eventually be the site of additional recycling depots, but there are no immediate plans to expand beyond the current three, Smith said.
The retrofitting of the Thompson Recycling Centre between March 20 and April 12, which Smith and Patrick refer to as "phase one," involves among other things the installation of a new sorting line and unloading system. Instead of sorting for recycling taking place from blue boxes at the curbside when the old long trailer unit arrived in tow, sorting, once the city's new automated recycling bins - same size as last fall's automated waste bins, but blue in colour - are distributed during the shutdown and go in service April 12, will take place inside the new configured Severn Crescent recycling facility.
Smith and Patrick said the cost of the phase one work is around $310,000 and it is being covered by government grant money, aside from the city's $50,000 contribution, which is coming from local taxpayers in the 2010 budget, which council expects to introduce and pass next month.
It is, in fact, government grant money, nothing else, that is driving the coming shutdown date March 20, Smith said, noting some of the money had to be spent by March 31 in a use-it-or-lose it scenario.
The retrofitting of the Thompson Recycling Centre was going to have to be done at some point soon, Smith said, so the grant deadline drove the date, with the centre's shutdown coming 11 days under the wire to get the work started.
A new office area is also planned at the Thompson Recycling Centre and is to be constructed over the next couple of months, and additional storage is to be added this summer, but aren't expected to have an impact on residential recycling pickup, Flaming said.
