Recycling by the Numbers

Not everyone was in support of council’s move this week to support a $1.7 million dollar commitment towards the City of North Bay’s leased Patton St recycling center. The commitment includes $800,000 in renovations, including a roof and interior renovation contract awarded to Venasse Construction for $547,050 and a separate $900,000 ten year lease extension. Once the upgrades are completed the City will be able to expand the recycling program to allow more plastics to be picked up at the curb including wide mouth plastics. However, glass and hazardous waste storage will still be housed outside the building due to space constraints and will include another $110,000 of the total costs.

City Councillor Chris Mayne raised his objections asking it a move to renovate a building that the city doesn’t own and extending the lease is in the best interest for tax payers.

“The monies can be better spent by both purchasing and renovating a building, or building and owning a new facility,” he tells BayToday.

Deputy Mayor Peter Chirico was clear during the meeting that he didn’t agree with Mayne’s suggestions noting that such a move would bring a price tag in the neighbourhood of 4 million dollars.

“The City of North Bay cannot afford a new facility,” he said.

The rest of council supported this view and in a recorded vote of 9 to 1 the motion to renovate and expand the Patton Street lease motion passed.

When asked about the cost Mayne simply stated that the City’s own estimate for a new facility was $2.5 million, but as the City had not gone back to tender or RFP for a new facility since the original combined construction and waste collection RFP in Spring of 2007, they had not obtained current and competitive numbers to compare the renovate and lease costs to.

A view also expressed at the City’s Waste Resources Liaison Committee in January when the full committee passed a motion requesting the City get a quote for new construction before committing to the renovate and lease option. This vote was supported by City Councillors Mayne, Koziol and Vrebosch- Merry who sit on the committee but in the end both Koziol and Vrebosch- Merry changed their minds and supported the motion to renovate and lease the current facility.

“Given the recent one time funding from the Province of Ontario, I believe there was a significant opportunity to invest some of those funds towards the recycling infrastructure for the City of North Bay that may have seen higher short term costs but would have achieved long term savings by actually owning our own recycling facility,” States Mayne.

“Given the current decision at the end of 10 years we will have simply expended $1.7 Million rather than retaining any equity through ownership.”