Civic Alert: Boycott Agglom with flawed trash deal

Last week’s monthly Agglom meeting produced a ridiculous result as Big Montreal forced through a 10-year contract to process recycling that looks “free” but which Karin Marks and co feel could cost plenty before it finishes.

The successful tender came from Rebuts Solides, a long established Montreal firm engaged in recycling for years before modern door-to-door pick-ups. It led the blue box collection and processing industry when that began in the suburbs in 1990.

It rented buildings from Montreal — and still does — on the site of the former Miron quarry, the giant St. Michel garbage dump. Rebuts Solides was so successful in the new recycling era of the ‘nineties that it was soon taken over.

Like almost all of the Quebec waste industry, it is now foreign–owned — by the Belgian multi-national Tiru.

The successful bid was for all of Montreal’s recycling processing. Cities and boroughs will collect it, as now, but it will be sorted and sold only by Tiru.

One company for the whole Island is worrying!

JC Fibres, the Colubriale family firm which currently both collects and processes recyclables from Westmount and many other parts of Montreal, will no longer have any residential collection business on the Island once its contract expires. It traditionally handled paper recycling from commercial establishments and will presumably continue that specialty.

From $15 to zero?

At the beginning of the year, Montreal negotiated a recycling contract at $15 per tonne rising to $20 over ten years. The deal was not concluded because of criticism that the city's costs were guaranteed to increase at a time when recycling outlays were supposed to drop. A few months later, Montreal found a contractor who will do the same thing for almost nothing!

Now Montreal is presenting a contract for 10 years which will cost only $11 million total. That is mainly to meet the cost of landfilling the unrecyclable materials that get collected inadvertently. The actual cost of processing will be zero; Tiru presumably expects to cover its costs and its margin from the sale of the recovered material.

So at the Agglom, the suburban mayors argued that as such possibilities exist for Tiru now, in the future the cost to municipalities should come down.

Besides, one hopes that the amount of material in the waste steam will begin to reduce — even recyclables — yet Montreal was committing to deliver minimum quantities.

It was the same principal as the famous incinerator scheme 15 years ago, which called for guaranteed quantities of garbage to be delivered for burning despite the wish to reduce the waste generated by the 3Rs: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle.

That plan was ridiculed and generated a huge groundswell of opposition, as the mayors reminded their Montreal colleagues. The Montreal chosen seemed nonplussed, except for Executive Chairman Frank Zampino, who was deputy leader while Mayor Gerald Tremblay was on a trade mission in South-East Asia.

National Assembly date

Zampino repeatedly left his seat to confer with colleagues as, one-after-another, the suburban mayors pleaded to delay accepting the contract for two months.

In that period, they hope to convince Jean Charest and the Quebec government to change the demerger laws which have given Big Montreal — despite its inefficiencies — power to determine what happens to our recyclables, garbage and many other aspects of municipal life.

Bill 22, which Charest hopes will bring some harmony between the disputing municipalities on the Island, goes in to committee for three days next week. Then on Tuesday, November 13, the suburban mayors will make their presentation.

Among other things, they will seek for control over their garbage.

“Waste is created by people and municipalities are the governments closest to the people and best able to influence their habits,” says Mayor Marks. “So we, and not Big Montreal, should control its destiny.”

Mayor weighs the issues

Karin Marks sees the dilemma as something she has to face as part of being mayor. “My first loyalty is to residents and I intend to protect them from the impacts of the big things that come along.” The mayor was thinking of the issues that would arise now that the CP line has come to the fore again as the route for the airport shuttle.

“For instance, we have to ask: ‘Do we want a first class hospital? Similarly with the train: ‘Do we want a rail service that will take cars off the roads, help the environment and so on.’

“In a conflict situation, I have to consider that my first duty is to residents, but sometimes there are big issues that require both the protection of residents and support for issues that make sense.

“That was the case with the hospital and I suspect it is going to be the same thing with the shuttle.

“Of course, the lower route would be better because it runs so close to fewer homes. There is a large stretch where they intend to build and they could do so in such a way that people are not as close as on the CP route.”

Will it be CN or CP?

Just thinking about the introduction of an airport rail shuttle takes Montreal into a new league! It is desperately needed if we are to move away from the car culture, even though it would be a relatively small step.

Although we are going to hear, with justification, a lot about the inconvenience and noise from those impacted, there are some attractive possibilities. A train ride from Vendôme for local residents could be helpful in keeping a car at home not sitting in an airport parking lot.

A 20-minute journey to the airport hub, with no time lost to get from the parking lot in to the terminal, would ease the burden on many passengers. The same would apply at Montreal West, assuming that the trains will stop at two intermediate stations — three if there is to be a link to the West Island from Dorval.

If only one stop is envisaged, then Vendome will have the advantage because of its connection to the Metro.

The CP solution, which has been revived because of West Island commuter traffic, is a better answer for Montrealers — the CN route best for visitors.

Via Rail, the operator would use long-distance trains from Kinston and Ottawa to and from the airport. They would also provide higher levels of comfort to those with a downtown destination.

Central Station advantage

Most visitors would welcome Central Station with its closer proximity to hotels, shops, entertainment, the underground city and rail connections to Quebec and the Halifax line than Lucien L’Allier, the originating point for CP.

There are many important considerations to be made by the newly appointed consultants and the ultimate decision-makers. It would be nice to have both options because they serve different needs. That will not happen.

How onerous it will be for citizens living near the tracks will depend on the choice of system. Electrified light rail is favored by many.

If chosen, then residents can optimistically expect much quieter trains and less vibration because they will be lighter. The world-class electric train service on the Deux Montagnes line daily demonstrates what can be achieved in terms of a quiet, very fast and comfortable operation.

However, there have been complaints about air turbulence because of their speed.

And the present diesel service to Blainville and the South Shore would continue and probably grow.

Bike path link opens

During this morning (Thursday), with due ceremony, André Lavallée, the Big Montreal Executive Committee member responsible for transport, will open the super new bike path along De Maisonneuve Boulevard downtown. The $3.5 million, four-kilometre route will connect Atwater to Berri, passing by, or close to, the CSLC, Concordia, Peel, McGill, the big stores, Place des Arts, UQAM and the Grand Bibliothèque among other landmarks.

This stretch is more like a two-way bike lane than a path, protected by a cement barrier from car traffic. Montreal plans to clean it in winter.

The barrier extends from the west side of Atwater to the Montreal boundary to only just beyond the Alexis Nihon Second Cup near the Westmount border.

The gap is being completed between there and Greene, where it links with the existing path through the Park to Claremont. The new link will reduce the city’s parking meter income by about $35,000; Montreal will drop $1.2 million.

Within our city, an asphalt strip was laid similar to the downtown stretch. It is the same 10-feet width as downtown, but one foot wider than the existing Westmount trail. Bright yellow lines were painted by a city contractor over the weekend.

On Monday, Westmount’s barrier — flexible poles — was being installed, Public Works’ John Monteiro told me. Westmount does not intend to clear snow in winter or keep the path open, although De Maisonneuve residents know there are many bicyclists on fine days, even in January.

For the rest of the year, the Westmount bike path is often over-used at rush hours. It wanders and undulates through the Park in a manner not really suited to the rush to get to or from work.

“It was originally intended as a leisure trail, not a city path. It runs through a park where children play, not the highway it has become,” says Mayor Karin Marks.

Better route

“A high-volume bike path with the many cross streets is not the most secure whether in Westmount or Montreal. Some years ago, Council did a study which showed that the best place for the bike path would be on the CP tracks.

“But there was no way they would give up space and I suspect that is even less so now with the interest in using their line for the airport shuttle.”The Westmount path has been spared from many serious accidents, but one has to wonder about downtown. Big Mayor Gerald Tremblay anticipated problems when, in May, he launched the preparatory road work.

"We have to make sure that the motorists understand that they're not alone anymore, and the cyclists have to understand there are rules and bylaws that have to be respected," he said.

But next to nothing has been done to get that message across.

Velo Quebec has lobbied Montreal strenuously to install the new path. They anticipate that 5,000 cyclists use the downtown core every day. They would like to see a bike network that permits 150,000 cyclists to use it regularly.