Western Regional Waste Management Committee Meeting Minutes

Meeting Information: Date: Wednesday, June 29, 2011 Time: 6:00pm – 8:50pm Place: Pepsi Centre Games Place, Corner Brook, NL

Present were: Cynthia Downey Town of Stephenville Crossing Eileen Hann Town of Port au Port East Gary Bishop Town of Pasadena Donna Luther City of Corner Brook Linda Chaisson City of Corner Brook Sheila Mercer Town of Deer Lake (had to leave meeting at 8:25pm) Jerry Martin Town of Hampden (For Joan Parsons) Doug Mills NPRSB (NorPen) Don Downer Chair, WRWMC Pauline Anderson Office Administrator, WRWMC Wayne Manuel Bae NewPlan Boyd Wright Department of Municipal Affairs Cory Grandy Department of Municipal Affairs Eli Bishop Pollards Point, Technical Committee Member Rhea Hutchings Corner Brook, Technical Committee Chairperson Tony Oxford Cox’s Cove, Technical Committee Member

Joined via Telephone Ashley Burke MMSB Business Development Officer

Missing with Apologies: Richard Farrell Town of Channel-Port aux Basques Walter Nicolle Town of Rocky Harbour Tony Blanchard Humber Economic Development Board (Irishtown) Geraldine Porter Local Service District in Bay St. George South

Call to Order

The meeting was called to order by new Chairman Don Downer at 6:15pm when quorum was reached. Ashley Burke of MMSB joined the meeting via telephone at 6:10pm.

Agenda for this meeting includes:

1. Review and approval of May 26, 2011 WRWM Committee Minutes

2. Business Arising: a. Reinstatement of the Technical Committee b. Tours of Eastern and Central Waste Management Facilities (August 21-23?) c. Chairman’s meetings with Sub-regional committees - Southwest Coast; Bay St. Georges; and, Long Range. d. Scheduling of meeting with Michelle Marley from MMSB (ICI) e. Western Regional Waste Management Coordinator Hiring Process

3. Discussion on the sub-regions of WRWM and other areas

4. Communications

5. Cory Grandy – updates, questions and answers.

6. Wayne Manuel - questions and answers.

7. Any updates or questions resulting from Committee members’ discussions/meetings with surrounding communities: Bay St. George, Southern NL, White Bay, Pasadena; Rocky Harbour, Gillams, Corner Brook, Deer Lake, Humber Economic Development Board.

8. Reference material for completion of committee member’s travel expenses

9. Discussion of Summer Meeting Schedule (July and August). Also, discuss work objectives for the next 3-4 months.

10. Other

2 1. Review and approval of May 26, 2011 WRWM Committee Minutes One minor change was made to the attendees list from the May 26th meeting. Minutes were adopted with that one minor change.

2. Business Arising: a. Reinstatement of the Technical Committee The purpose of reinstating the Technical Committee is to have a group of people with the skills required to review material and details provided by the consultants and make recommendations to the WRWM Committee. The first meeting of the Technical Committee will be on Thursday, July 28th at 10am in the WRWM office on West Street. There are now four confirmed members of the Technical Committee with one other pending. Rhea Hutchings, Supervisor of Sustainable Development with the City of Corner Brook agreed to be the chairperson for the Technical Committee. This position will require her to pass along the recommendations from the Technical Committee to the WRWM Committee at their regular meetings each month. Other confirmed Technical Committee members include Tony Oxford (Cox’s Cove), Eli Bishop (White Bay) and Tom O’Brien (Bay St. George). We are awaiting confirmation of a member from the Port aux Basques and Daniel’s Harbour areas. Technical Committee members present at tonight’s meeting feel that important issues such focusing on transfer stations, communication with the public, illegal dumping and ensuring that the sites/transfer stations are made as welcoming as possible to draw people to use them rather than dumping their garbage in the woods, need to be dealt with in the near future. The Western Regional Waste Management Coordinator should be hired sometime in July and he/she will work with the Technical and WRWM Committee members with many of these issues. Education is key to the success of waste management and overcoming, or finding solutions to the various issues involved.

b. Tours of Eastern and Central Waste Management Facilities (August 21-23?) During meeting discussions, it was determined that neither July nor August would work in arranging the WRWM committee to travel to Eastern and Central to tour the facilities and transfer stations. It was suggested that we change the tour to September 15-17. This would be based solely on whether Central would be acceptable to having someone come in on a Saturday morning to provide the committee with the tour. Don will check into this and confirm with the Committee if these dates work with the Eastern and Central facilities.

c. Chairman’s meetings with Sub-regional committees - Southwest Coast; Bay St. Georges; and, Long Range. Don met with all three existing sub-regional committees to discuss the issues for each area. He met with Bay St. George on May 30, 2011; Southwest Coast on June 13, 2011; and, Long Range on June 27, 2011.

3 d. Scheduling of meeting with Michelle Marley from MMSB (ICI) To be brought forward to next meeting. Need to coordinate with Michelle regarding her attending a future meeting with the committee.

e. Western Regional Waste Management Coordinator Hiring Process We received 13 applicants for this position through our advertising in The Western Star, The Telegram and the Career Beacon website. We are hoping to schedule the interviews for Wednesday, July 6th and have the hiring done within 2 weeks of the interviews. We will be gaining the approval of Ashley Burke (MMSB) the WRWM Committee before the job is offered to the successful candidate. The hiring committee is committed to proceeding through this hiring process efficiently and with due diligence.

3. Discussion on the sub-regions of WRWM and other areas An initial meeting was held with representatives from communities included within the Corner Brook Sub-region on June 21 in Corner Brook City Hall. This sub-region includes the communities of Corner Brook, Cox’s Cove, Frenchman’s Cove, Gillams, , South, Humber Village, Irishtown-Summerside, , Little Rapids, , McIvers, Meadows, Mt. Moriah, Pasadena, and . A second meeting of this group is scheduled to take place at 7pm on July 21st. Mayor Greeley offered the ‘New” Corner Brook City Hall as the venue for this meeting. An initial meeting was held with representatives from communities included within the Deer Lake Sub-region on June 22 in Hodder Memorial Stadium in Deer Lake. This sub- region includes the communities of Beaches, Cormack, Deer Lake, Glenburnie – Birchy Head – Shoal Brook, Hampden, Howley, Jackson’s Arm, Pollard’s Point, Pynns Brook, Reidville, Sop’s Arm, St. Jude’s, Trout River and Woody Point. A second meeting of this group is scheduled to take place at 1pm on July 22 at the same venue. The Sub-regions will be looking into the closing of existing sites in their areas as well as dealing with consolidation of the interim landfill sites. The official transfer sites will be determined by the research conducted by Bae NewPlan for each sub-region. It has been determined that the Bay St. Georges site will most likely become a transfer station once decisions need to be made.

4. Communications This is a very important issue in the Western Region and has been the cause of many misunderstandings regarding Western Regional Waste Management in the past. We are working to improve communication between the communities, sub-regions and the public to ensure everyone has the correct and most updated information regarding Western Waste Management. We will be using email distribution lists, newsletters, public websites and sub-regional committee meetings to help improve the lines of communications. Also, the new Western Regional Waste Management Coordinator will work closely with the Corner Brook office and the difference committees in order to improve upon communications.

4 The Coordinator and Office personnel will work together to improve communications as well by looking into social media options such as facebook and twitter. The media is more tuned into information sourced through this method. Any other media contact is to be done either through the Chairman, Municipal Affairs or possibly the Coordinator so WRWM and Technical Committee members will not be asked to speak with the media on their own but asked to direct media interest to the Waste Management Office.

The public website should be up and running by the end of July and the committee agreed that all approved/adopted committee meeting minutes should go onto the website so the public can be made aware of the meeting discussions. If there are any motions made in the meetings, they can be posted to the website prior to the adoption of the minutes as motions have already been officially adopted by the committee as soon as they are made.

5. Cory Grandy – updates, questions and answers. After the motion made at the March 31st meeting (The Western Regional Waste Management Committee agrees to transport waste to Central pending government provide a transportation solution acceptable to the committee), no further research was conducted on the regional facility site. The committee fears that since the motion has basically halted further research as the ‘trucking to Central’ option depends on the result of the Government’s transportation subsidy (which we have been informed could take anywhere from a few months up to Spring of 2012) that we could fall behind in the project timeline if we don’t proceed with at least some research needed regarding the Western Facility or transfer stations. Cory cannot guess when a decision will be made regarding the transportation subsidy and could only confirm that the analysis has been started. Cory assures that there will be ‘no time lost’ because there is still work being done in order to build a complete system regardless of where the waste ends up. Bae NewPlan can look into the transfer stations which would be needed regardless of which option the Committee goes with in the end. Wayne can look at the costs for looking at Wild Cove and the work that needs to be done there in the interim. If the committee wants to continue with parallel research, then it may require additional funding but will money spent for further studies be well spent; or, will it be wasted if the transportation subsidy is successful. The committee feels there is no reason not to move forward incrementally in the meantime until we get an answer on the subsidy. NorPen stated that whatever option is finally decided upon really makes no difference to their region. The transportation subsidy is the main concern and they encourage government to move forward as quickly as possible so that that we don’t slip backwards any further in the project timeline.

6. Wayne Manuel - questions and answers. Update report from Bae NewPlan was sent to the WRWM Office on June 28th and posted onto the Committee website that same day. The Technical Committee will meet on July 28th to go through the report to determine what recommendations to make to the WRWM Committee on the document. Once this document is approved by the WRWM Committee (at the September meeting) it will be loaded onto our public website. Wayne

5 encouraged that if any committee members have any questions or concerns about the update report that they could contact him at any time. He discussed the earlier research which came up with 3 possible sites for the Western Facility (Birchy Ridge, Pasadena and Wild Cove), then the research focus went into the ‘trucking to Central’ option which research showed would result in lower tipping fees if there could be a transportation subsidy from Government. Bae NewPlan needs the following information to continue with the research: 1. Wild Cove requires additional bore holes to be done in order to confirm if it is indeed equivalent to lined. Scope of work was developed by Bae NewPlan for this work, but has not yet been approved by Municipal Affairs. This work will need to be done regardless of which decision is made because Wild Cove is one of the options for a Western Facility, or it will be a transfer site if the ‘trucking to Central’ option is selected. Wild Cove would require the front to be closed up and the site used for C&D at the minimum. 2. Financial aspect of the three sites or is one site becoming prominent. Need to do geotechnical and biological surveys on the preferred site so the environmental process won’t hold up the process. $100,000 not far off the estimate for groundwork needed on the preferred site. Wayne would like to have a letter directed to him regarding starting on this work. A second Progress Report will be completed by Bae NewPlan for delivery to the Committee in October/November 2011. This second progress report will deal with locations for transfer stations and have more costs figures from the research conducted.

7. Any updates or questions resulting from Committee members’ discussions/meetings with surrounding communities: Tony Oxford mentioned that at the last Humber Joint Council meeting a motion was put forward for a letter to be sent to the Department of Municipal Affairs asking them to respond to the WRWM Committee’s March 31st motion without delay. We cannot accept any further delays in this project. There is major concern that government cannot make any kind of commitment to the transportation subsidy beyond their term as government. There is also a question regarding the costing based on all compost and recycled materials being transported to Central. What about waste diversion programs in Western and reduction of as much waste going to Central as possible? What effect does that have in the costing? This needs to be considered as it could greatly impact the costing for that option. Wayne commented that the costing involves trucking everything to Central because they are using it to calculate the ‘worst case scenario’ for cost involved. The 2002 Provincial Waste Management Strategy encourages waste diversion, but they have to consider the extremes so that no surprises come up regarding costs. Municipal Affairs will want to know how sensitive the current numbers are and will be meeting with Bae NewPlan over the next several weeks regarding this issue. If the communities are aware the household cost can be $200/year, then they can work on waste diversion projects if people understand these projects can help reduce the household cost. The $200 figure (for curbside collection plus tipping fee; and, based on

6 one tonne of garbage per household per year) is the round number that Bae NewPlan and Municipal Affairs have been using based on the work done on Central and Eastern. Even if we decide on a Western Facility and it ends up in Birchy Ridge, there are still costs involved in getting the waste to the facility; so, waste diversion is a VERY important aspect of Waste Management for Western. Illegal dumping is a major concern in many communities in the region. You not only need to overcome the education barrier but, there is a cultural barrier as well especially with the older generation who are not used to such procedures as waste management facilities deal with. As mentioned throughout the meeting – Education is Key to the success of Waste Management. Integrating waste management and waste diversion practices into the daily life of Western residents will be very important. There was concern expressed regarding the authority of the WRWM Committee and how serious government will consider our recommendations regarding waste disposal in the Western Region. The example of Robin Hood Bay not being included in the study for Eastern Regional Waste Management, but ended up being the site used regardless of the recommendation the Eastern Committee made. Cory wanted to clarify that the Eastern case was different in that the consultants weren’t asked to do research into Robin Hood Bay so that site couldn’t be a recommendation by their committee. Government did research into Robin Hood Bay and when the costs were compared, it was determined that Robin Hood Bay was the best cost efficient option. Municipal Affairs will make the ultimate decision based on the Western Committee’s recommendation and the research conducted regarding costs.

8. Reference material for completion of committee member’s travel expenses It was pointed out to the committee members that three government websites need to be used in submitting the costs involved in travel expenses. Once the correct information is included on the travel expense claim, it is forwarded to the WRWM Office in Corner Brook for approval and processing.

9. Discussion of Summer Meeting Schedule (July and August). Also, discuss work objectives for the next 3-4 months. It was decided by the committee that we would proceed with the July meeting, but since it will be a relatively short meeting with only a few items on the agenda, it would be re- scheduled to July 21st at 5pm – just prior to the next Corner Brook Sub-regional meeting taking place at 7pm also on the July 21st . It was also decided that dinner would be provided for the WRWM Committee at this meeting as it is taking place earlier than the usual WRWM meetings so many committee members will be missing dinner in order to attend. There will not be a WRWM Committee meeting in August, but the schedule will continue with their regular monthly meetings starting again in September.

The WRWM Office will be working over the next few months to gather information regarding the changeover of the WRWM Committee into a Regional Service Board. We need to find a governance model that is acceptable to the committee. It was discussed at an earlier meeting in 2010 that the current committee structure be rolled over into the

7 service board as is, but the structure of the current committee may not be concurrent with the basic structure, or procedures in structuring, a service board. There was concern expressed by committee members about the inconsistency in the past in keeping the committee whole especially when dealing with municipal elections of various communities on the West Coast. Once a vacancy appears on the committee/board, it needs to be filled ASAP.

Bae NewPlan will continue with their research, the next item being the geotechnical study in relation to Wild Cove.

10. Other

No further items were brought up for discussion.

Meeting was adjourned at 8:50pm.

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