By Sylene Argent, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, Essex Free Press
By a slim vote – with seven in favour and six opposed, Essex County Council supported Essex Mayor Sherry Bondy’s Notice of Motion to rescind the By-Law to transfer all power of the lower-tier municipalities of the County of Essex with respect to the collection and delivery of waste in the County of Essex, by a vote of a simple majority.
She raised this as a Notice of Motion at the October 4 meeting, for discussion at the October 16 meeting, because she believes there was an oversight, due to no fault to anyone.
At its August 16 meeting, a majority of County of Essex Council passed this By-Law to start the process of lifting waste collection and delivery from the local municipalities to the County-level, but it could not take effect until four of the seven local municipalities – representing at least 50 percent of electors in the County – bought into the potential program.
In bringing the matter back to the municipal table, Tecumseh, Leamington, and Amherstburg were in favour of lifting waste collection to the County, while Essex, Kingsville, Lakeshore, and LaSalle were opposed.
Bondy noted that when LaSalle dealt with the matter, it was discovered the By-Law County Council passed would remain indefinitely, even if defeated by the majority of the County municipalities.
The By-Law should no longer exist if it did not get the majority of support from the seven local municipalities, Bondy said.
The idea to form a regional collection was to take advantage of economies of scale/cost by potentially attracting more bidders with a higher volume, to create route efficiencies, and extend the life of the landfill with a decrease in the amount of tonnage by diverting organics.
Talks about the possibility began in June of 2022, when the previous Term of County Council directed Administration to work with the Essex Windsor Solid Waste Authority (EWSWA) on creating a regional waste management program.
This took place after County Council voted to inform EWSWA all County municipalities would participate in a regional solution for the collection and processing of organic waste material from urban settlement areas at a minimum in March 2022, a month after the City of Windsor Council voted in favour of participating in an organics program on a regional-basis, if possible.
As a result of that, in 2025, Essex and area municipalities will receive weekly organics pick-up through EWSWA.
“Instead of saying that we can’t agree on a shared service, I think we could look at it as our local governments don’t see an issue and don’t see the model as broken with garbage. Perhaps we need to look at different services that we can share,” Bondy said.
“I think that if we are going to have the local discussion, or discussion again with our locals, about uploading garbage, I think there are issues with the By-Law. And, I believe it is not healthy for this Council to have that By-Law sit there indefinitely, dividing this Council,” Bondy commented, adding if one of the four originally opposed changes its mind this Term of Council, the By-Law would come into effect without having any more conversations.
Rescinding the County’s By-Law, she believes is the right thing to do. She believes it should have been written that if the majority of the locals did not pass it, that it should have automatically ceased to exist.
Lakeshore Deputy Mayor Kirk Walstedt also believed the By-Law should be rescinded, and if the issue comes back up, County Council will have a different report and by-law that can be considered.
Mary Birch, Director of Legislative and Community Services/Clerk, noted that a reconsideration of a matter can be done once in a Term of Council, which this would be considered as. So, the matter would not be able to be discussed again until the new Term of Council.
Amherstburg Mayor Michale Prue was against the motion as if the matter was reopened and reversed, it closes discussion this term.
“We are entering into very difficult financial times. We have already put out some feelers in Amherstburg [about] how much it is going to cost us more in the coming year or two when we have to negotiate our own contract,” Prue said, adding that municipalities across the province are looking at increases as high as 30 percent for waste collection service.
The reason he supported this matter initially was to have better bargaining power, as having the seven municipalities working together may get a better deal through negotiations.
Individually, he believes the municipalities will pay through the nose for the service.
“If you simply leave this here, it causes nobody any grief at all,” he said, asking those who would support rescinding the matter how their municipalities would suffer by leaving it in place.
Tecumseh Mayor Gary McNamara agreed with Prue, calling it an “injustice to our people” that it could not be reapproached for at least three-years if it was rescinded. “It gives us the flexibility to be able to come back and do the right thing, at the right time, for the right reason to support our residents.”
Bondy noted that through the Procedural By-Law, the County Council only has six-months to take it down.
Taking it down would be because the majority of the municipalities were not comfortable with the language. “We can have more healthier conversations,” she said.
At every Council meeting Essex Deputy Mayor Rob Shepley watched, there were a lot of questions that were not answered. Leaving the By-Law in place could lead to it being uploaded, and those questions would still not be answered.
County Warden and Leamington Mayor, Hilda MacDonald, disagreed with Kingsville Mayor Dennis Rogers when he said this was a contentious matter that divided County Council.
“I think this Council has a hard time thinking regionally, and waste is only the tip of the iceberg. Waste should have been the easiest,” MacDonald said, adding at the County table, Councillors need to think about what is good for the region.
She wanted an “insurance plan” in place on the matter.
“I will warn you, Council, the inability to think regionally will hamstring us that we will not be able to make any big decisions at this table…right now I don’t have the warm and fuzzies that any tough decisions can be made at this table at this point in time, based on the inability to think regionally,” MacDonald said.
MacDonald, Leamington Deputy Mayor Larry Verbeke, Amherstburg’s Mayor Prue and Deputy Mayor Chris Gibb, Tecumseh Mayor Gary MacNamara, and Lakeshore Mayor Tracey Bailey were opposed, while Bondy and Shepley of Essex, Lakeshore Deputy Mayor Walstedt, Kingsville Mayor Rogers and Deputy Mayor Kim DeYong, LaSalle Deputy Mayor Mike Akpata and Councillor Mark Carrick (who filled in for Mayor Meloche at the meeting) were in favour of rescinding .
Tecumseh Deputy Mayor Joe Bachetti was not present at the meeting.
During the meeting, McNamara asked how representatives could explain large increases for waste collection to taxpayers when contracts are up, as many municipalities are experiencing large increases in cost. The idea for the regional waste collection program was to take advantage of economies of scale, however, local dignitaries have expressed concern over the course of discussions that cost-savings are not guaranteed.
He also spoke of the cost to site a new landfill. He said it is about doing the right thing for the environment. Bondy, however, noted that the regional collection has nothing to do with expanding the life of the landfill. That was the purpose of the organics program and that is already approved for 2025.
McNamara put forward a Notice of Motion, to be discussed at the next meeting, that will ask County Council to direct Administration to prepare a report on money that was expended on this matter through staff at the County and EWSWA as he wanted that figure made public.
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