ATHABASCA – Athabasca County councillors were united in their opposition to some proposed service-level changes that the Athabasca Regional Waste Services Commission sent out earlier this month.
During their Nov. 21 committee of the whole meeting, councillors voted 8-0 — Coun. Natasha Kapitaniuk was absent — in favour of a motion to strongly oppose the closure of any transfer sites within any of the county’s boundaries. During the Nov. 30 motion councillors would vote 8-0 again — Coun. Gary Cromwell was absent — to officially affirm the motion.
“I think it would be detrimental to close any one of these transfer sites, and we need to be strong in that and make sure it doesn’t happen as best we can,” said Hall.
The commission sent out a document titled Transfer Sites Long-Term Strategy for comment from stakeholders as part of a wider effort to find efficiencies in the organization.
“It was mainly brought up for consideration, and I think it’s good discussion,” said Coun. Rob Minns, who represents the county at commission meetings. “Looking at the possibility for this to happen really quick is a no.”
In the document, the commission asked the question, “Is 50 kilometres a reasonable distance to ask users to travel?” If the answer is yes, the commission says that Whispering Hills, Colinton, and Grassland could all close. The commission also noted that Grassland, Wandering River, and Perryvale sites are the most underutilized, but if they were closed users in the north and south ends of the county would be travelling more than 50 km to reach a transfer site.
“I think it’s going to be strongly opposed by the summer villages as well, I can’t see them going along with it,” said Minns. “These transfer sites, most of them are built on old landfills, so they aren’t going anywhere.”
The report listed after-hours dumping and salvaging as a challenge for all of the transfer stations since they’re remote and only open certain days of the week.
“Trespassers have dumped their waste outside the gates or along the property line of the site,” read the report. “They too will also cut the lock or chain and access the site illegally, the results of which leave the operator a mess to clean up and/or the need to replace locks, chains etc. as they get torn down as part of the break-in.”
Athabasca County paid for $778,240 of the $1,283,245 requisition in 2023, or 60.0 per cent.
“Congratulations to them for trying to find efficiencies in their operations, I hope it’s in all areas and not just in services that really impact rural residents the most,” said County CAO Bob Beck, who brought the item to councils’ attention. “I suggest we push back a little bit on a reduction in services, unless they want to open the funding formula at the same time, since we pay 60.6 per cent.”
