WESTLOCK — It’s been a difficult 2022 for the Westlock Regional Waste Management Commission (WRWMC), with reduced revenues, increased costs and unexpected capital expenses, resulting in higher rates for town and county residents.
The Westlock Regional Landfill operates under the WRWMC and is comprised of members from the Town of Westlock, Westlock County, and the Village of Clyde, while the landfill falls under the management of Tom Moore.
Every year the municipalities appoint directors to sit on the commission board — two from the town, two from the county and one from the village, which sets policy for the commission with the manager implementing them. The commission was first formed around 2000 with administration and management carried out by Westlock County under direction from the commission directors. Then in 2016, a full-time on-site manager was hired and in 2019 administration was moved from the county to the commission itself.
Commission directors discussed the reduced revenues, increased costs and other areas at their Oct. 14 general meeting, including a financial report, the strategic plan, next year’s budget, which is scheduled to be approved by the end of the year, and changes to the rates bylaw, which the commission reviews every two years, the last coming in 2020.
Inflation has been a big factor contributing to a $50,000 shortfall. “I think between post COVID-19 a little bit and inflation, they are having a major effect on our reduced revenue and our increased expenses,” said commission chair Curtis Snell.
Moore said they used to have budget increases every two years but the challenging year with inflation and increased costs, has put things into a different perspective.
“We used to go every two years, but after you have a year like this year that had an average 7.5 per cent average (inflation) increase, and now with the way inflation and things are going we can’t do that,” explained Moore. “So, we’re going to be re-visiting those rates every year and see where we’re at on that.”
The commission agreed to an eight per cent increase for residential and commercial fees for wastes that go to the regional landfill. Effective Jan. 1, 2023, residential rates (non-construction) are increasing from $74 per tonne to $80 per tonne, while commercial rates are going up from $85 per tonne to $92 per tonne. The commission has also introduced a new section for residential and commercial uses.
Moore explained that the landfill has seen a higher level of construction and demolition materials, which are more difficult to manage and gets less kilograms per cubic metre than regular waste, thus the commission is implementing higher rates.
“We made a new category for construction and demolition type of materials. That’s very bulky and it takes up a lot of space in our (landfill),” said Snell. “We’ve got that as $100 per tonne so that’s going to help us out a bit.”
In addition, they are increasing the hydrovac fees to help offset the higher costs of leachate management, as well as some other smaller items to offset costs. The commission also adjusted recycle rates to try and provide incentives for residents and businesses bringing in low volumes.
In addition to inflation, costs have increased for several reasons, including that basic operations are up about 15 per cent due to fuel, heat, power, and contractors and recycling is up almost 20 per cent. Staffing is also up about 15 to 20 per cent and is another factor in increased costs.
“A lot more recycling is coming in as our individuals and businesses within our area here are doing a great job of recycling, which means less waste going to the landfill which is good,” said Snell. “It’s cheaper to recycle … but our labour costs go up because now we have more labour in the recycle facility.”
Snell said they’ve been working to attract and keep employees and ensure they’re “competitive with the market out there,” and noted the new rate of pay policy that was also discussed at the meeting. “It keeps us more competitive for that market — really we’re in the middle of the pack as far as other waste commissions across the province as far as wages,” he said.
Snell and Moore reviewed the strategic plan and provided some updated information. The current plan was developed in 2015 and has two-, three-, five-, 10- and 25-year goals that were put in place at that time. “We’ve been very aggressive on the goals in that plan over the last six or seven years and we really accomplished most of our goals right up until the 10-year mark of our plan and even some of the 25-year goals we’ve accomplished as well.
“All in all, at this point we’re going to stay the course with our plan and our goals,” Snell added. “We basically started with zero dollars in the bank account in 2019 so to end up in a little bit of a cash flow crunch like we are right now, isn’t a preferred situation at this point but it’s not unheard of.”
Snell noted they have paid cash for several large items and are looking at other options to ease the crunch on cashflow and use a different manner to spread the cost out over several years. All things considered, Snell said he and the board are happy with the commission’s work, strides they are making and their direction moving forward.
He noted they will continue to look at all avenues where they can to improve the bottom line, including innovative approaches that will benefit the commission and its users to better the facility in the future.
“I think that’s going to make us more competitive going forward, so I’m very happy we decided to look at those options,” said Snell.
