Archives for September 2, 2019

Of the 8,000 households in the organics pilot, only 13 have refused to participate

If the future of waste efficiency in Edmonton is in the hands of its residents, the first few months of an organics pilot project bodes well.

City councillors agreed to a revamped strategy Thursday with the eventual goal of keeping 90 per cent of its residential garbage out of the landfill. 

The strategy depends, in large part, on the effort and accuracy of residents separating organics from garbage and recyclables.

A pilot project testing the system is in its third month, with 8,000 households in a dozen neighbourhoods taking part. 

Only 13 homes have refused to participate in the system, city administration told CBC News Friday.

Neighbourhoods on the northside participating include Baturyn, Beacon Heights, Brintnell, Cy Becker, Chambery, Delwood, Miller, and Kensington.

In the south, Ellerslie, Forest Heights, Kiniski Gardens, Satoo, and Tamarack are in the pilot.

Karl Kuss lives in Beacon Heights and is partaking in the pilot. He said overall, the system is working and separating has helped cut his garbage in half. 

“It has cut back significantly on our regular waste. It’s amazing.”

Kuss said he and his wife are putting out one to two garbage bags every two weeks, instead of two or three every week. “I feel we’re on the right track,” Kuss said of the separation program. 

“When I looked at the rest of the world and I looked at the rest of the country, we were a little bit behind the times,” he said. “We have to get with the times.” 

In the pilot, residents put organics like food scraps and used paper towels in green bins, which are picked up once a week in the summer and every other week in the winter.

Garbage in the black bins gets picked up every other week.

Trucks with automated arms lift the bins and dump the contents into trucks. 

Many Canadian jurisdictions have been source-separating for several years. In Edmonton, it wasn’t necessary under the former waste system, which processed all materials at the waste management centre. 

Fatima Fernandez, a resident of Brintnell, admits it takes a bit of time to get the hang of it. 

“Once you get started, it becomes easy,” she said. “At first, you feel a little flustered, not knowing what to put in there.”

The city handed out brochures outlining what goes into the different bins and blue bags. Fernandez said the city’s website and an app called WasteWise helps outlines the parameters. 

“I wasn’t sure if I could actually at first put the coffee filters in the compost, cause I didn’t know if the filters were compostable but they are.”

Kuss still has a few concerns: one is the tiny bin for kitchen scraps that won’t be sufficient, especially on holidays. 

He notes other jurisdictions have bigger kitchen bins for scraps. 

Kuss is also concerned the organics will invite unwanted critters.

“Rodents just love to find their way into things,” he said. “I’m an old farm boy, we used to have feed in garbage cans with good tight lids on it, and every once in a while you’d open them up and guess what was inside? A half a dozen mice.”

Changes coming 

When the program was rolled out, the city asked participants to refrain from using biodegradable plastic bags, commonly found in other jurisdictions. 

They’re supposed to use paper bags or nothing to line their bins.

Vahid Rashidi, senior project engineer in waste services, said the city will soon allow participants to use biodegradable plastic bags.

“It is a concern that we’ve heard loud and clear from the residents,” he said Friday.He suggested people layer the green cart with shredded paper, newspaper, used paper towels or grass to help mitigate odours. 

“It’s a path of education, it’s a path of learning, it’s a path we’re on,” he said Friday. “It’s definitely always improving.”

The pilot has generated nearly a thousand tonnes of organic matter since it started in April. 

Since the city shut down the compost facility earlier this spring, some of the organics were sent to the city’s anaerobic digestion facility, which is still in test mode.

When fully operational, the ADF — a method of breaking down organics without oxygen — is expected to process about 45,000 tonnes. 

For now, the city will get a third-party company to process small amounts of organics generated from the pilot. 

The city is exploring partners in composting to handle more organics when the pilot turns into a city-wide program next summer. 

Another 250,000 single households will join these neighbourhoods in separating the food from the chaff.

Employers demand exemptions related to schedule changes, rules mandating regular breaks and rest periods

Chris Rauenbusch says he doesn’t know if his employer can summon him to work on a day off after a series of sweeping federal labour reforms went into effect Sunday.

“I don’t know if I am entitled to take a break during a 14-hour shift,” said the 39-year-old flight attendant, who heads WestJet’s union local in Calgary.

Employers want delay or exemption

His quandary follows a request by employers that Ottawa make some last-minute exemptions or delays to its new rules. The request has left hundreds of thousands of workers and their bosses, in sectors from airlines to trucking to telecommunications, unclear about whether they are fully covered by the Canada Labour Code overhaul.

As confusion mounted in the lead-up to the changes, Employment Minister Patty Hajdu said certain interim exemptions would apply — at least until further tweaks can be made after the October election — but acknowledged the government was still hammering out who they will ultimately include.

“I can’t actually speak to which employers and which employee classes will be subject to these limited exemptions because that is still being worked out with the department right now, and I’m looking forward to their advice,” Hajdu said days before the regulations started to kick in.

“I’m not certain exactly when I’ll have those recommendations.”

The new rules, which apply to the 904,000 workers in federally regulated sectors, from banking to the civil service, usher in a suite of changes that mandate new personal leaves and longer bereavement and vacation periods, among other things.

Industry representatives say some of the amendments would delay shipments, cancel flights and hurt the country’s economy, while labour groups argue they are simply asking for reasonable working conditions.

“If you’re a trucking operation and your shipment gets cancelled, you can’t just send the truck anyway. If somebody is sick, you may need somebody else to go,” said Dan Kelly, president of the Canadian Federation of Independent Business (CFIB).

Rules that fail to take that into account mean “the entire Canadian shipping network and supply chain is put at risk,” according to a May 13 letter to the employment minister from an industry association, Federally Regulated Employers — Transportation and Communications (FETCO), and obtained by The Canadian Press.

Interim exemptions for some

An interim exemption will apply to several rules the transport sector says would kneecap its operations, including requirements that employers give staff a 24-hour heads-up on shift changes and four days’ notice for schedules, Employment and Social Development Canada confirmed. A mandated 30-minute break every five hours and an eight-hour rest period between shifts will also exclude some workers.

But which companies and employees will remain unshielded by the new regulations remains uncertain.

“It would be very, very specific classes of employees that, if we were to determine, could be exempt. Because ultimately these changes are about increasing productivity, increasing safety standards and work-life balance,” Hajdu said in a phone interview.

Rauenbusch said the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) recognizes that airline workers occupy a round-the-clock industry and that 24 hours’ notice before a shift change may not always be feasible.

“But just because we happen to be employed in a unique industry doesn’t necessitate simply stripping us of the benefits that the government is trying to afford to workers across the country,” he said.

Kelly countered that wages and longer time-off stretches can compensate for demanding scheduling protocols at airlines, trucking companies and telecoms — where repair and maintenance needs can pop up unpredictably.

“It’s not like employees in these industries are prisoners. They’re often among the most sought-after jobs around because they have other commensurate benefits,” said the CFIB head.

Trucking faces labour shortage

Trucking, however, already faces a serious labour shortage, despite a low barrier to entry. Better benefits could lead to “enhanced recruitment and retention,” said Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC).

Employers expressed frustration with the consultation process after the government agreed to push back implementation by three months from its initial date in June.

“Given that the country is mere days away from Sept. 1, implementation of some of these labour code changes are at great risk of failure. This could have easily been avoided with a proper tripartite process many months ago, or a short delay,” reads an Aug. 28 email from FETCO executive director Derrick Hynes to ESDC.

“What we’re waiting for is to hear back from the government around what they feel would be appropriate in terms of granting some temporary relief from some of these changes,” Hynes told The Canadian Press.

The employment minister, “having attended at least one funeral this summer of people that died as a result of a vehicle collision with a transport truck,” stressed health and safety — and reiterated that they go hand in hand with profit and productivity.

“At the end of the day, happy employees, safe employees, well-rested employees are more productive. It leads to safer workplaces and leads to more prosperity as a country overall,” Hajdu said.

Liberal government says its Northern Policy Framework is still a work in progress

After four years in power, the Liberal government still hasn’t delivered on a promise of a detailed plan for developing Canada’s North in a time of climate change and economic and military threats from circumpolar powers.

“There is so much work that needs to be done,” Iqaluit Mayor Madeleine Redfern told CBC News. “For decades, we have been falling behind our Arctic neighbours.”

Almost three years ago, the Liberals committed to developing an Arctic Policy Framework. The document, intended to replace past strategies designed by the previous Conservative government, was supposed to be released this summer.

CBC News has learned that a recently scheduled announcement of the policy was cancelled. It’s unclear whether the finished policy will be released before the election.

In spite of the delays, Arctic leaders and polar policy experts have said the Liberals have made significant investments in the region. Redfern said Iqaluit and the region have seen green infrastructure investments and new money to fight tuberculosis and substance abuse.

But some experts in Arctic policy say those past investments (and, lately, pre-election funding announcements) could be undermined if there’s no overall plan for Canada’s polar future.

“We’re not necessarily deploying all these investments as strategically as we could and should,” Redfern said.

Arctic economic and governance expert John Higginbotham is more blunt about the absence of a new framework. He told CBC News a planned unveiling of the policy document in Yellowknife in August was cancelled.

“Once again postponed. I mean, it’s a joke,” said Higginbotham, a senior fellow at the Centre for International Governance Innovation.

He said he gives the government points for advancing protections for the environment and Indigenous reconciliation. In 2019 alone, the Liberals apologized for the mistreatment of Inuit with tuberculosis and turned vast areas of the High Arctic into marine protected and conservation areas.

But Higginbotham said Canada’s North has been “screaming” for federal leadership in building roads and ports, preparing for commercial traffic through the Northwest Passage, bolstering defence, and creating economic opportunities.

Instead, he said, the government has focused its mandate in the Arctic on eco-social issues.

“The government is interested in the Arctic,” Higginbotham said. “But it’s a progressive agenda which many Canadians will like. I mean, they want as little economic development as possible up in the North.”

Will we see an Arctic strategy before the election?

The promised Arctic policy framework is still a work in progress. It will have chapters authored by territorial, provincial and Indigenous governance organizations, the federal government says.

“We have gone across the North to speak directly with northerners about what they want included in the Arctic and Northern Policy Framework,” said Crown-Indigenous Relations spokesperson Jane Deeks.

Unlike the Conservatives, Deeks said, the government didn’t take an “Ottawa knows best” approach that “ignored the everyday needs of northerners for 10 years.”

She said she couldn’t state whether the framework would be released before or after the election.

Conservatives and NDP weigh in

Conservative MP Erin O’Toole called the Liberals’ track record on the Arctic a “colossal failure.” He said if the document drops during the pre-writ period, it will become a political document instead of a non-partisan vision.

O’Toole, the party’s foreign affairs critic, said Canada is falling behind its circumpolar neighbours — the U.S, Denmark and Russia. China recently released a white paper that laid out the country’s plan to establish a “Polar Silk Road” through the Northwest Passage.

Both parties came in for criticism from Manitoba NDP MP Niki Ashton, who said years of Conservative and Liberal governments haven’t delivered for northerners.

“Certainly the challenges we’re facing in the North when it comes to the federal government are ongoing,” Ashton said. “And they are a result of consecutive Conservative and Liberal governments ignoring us.”

Jessica Shadian, president of Arctic360, an organization that works to educate financial institutions about opportunities in the North, said Canada’s polar region needs not partisanship but an in-depth, multi-decade plan — something she doubts the Liberal framework will deliver.

Shadian said the North needs a plan that creates a business case for Bay Street investors who see the North as a foreign land.

“I also work a lot with financial institutions … They don’t have a business case in front of them,” Shadian said. “To see why they should be partners. Because obviously, the federal government cannot fund these projects alone.”

Redfern agrees with Shadian, saying a compelling business case would lure private sector investment and attract buy-in from provincial, territorial, municipal and Indigenous governments.

She also pointed to one key area where Canada’s North needs investment: higher education. Although Canada has committed to opening Canada’s first university in the Yukon, she said that’s not enough for a region that accounts for 40 per cent of Canada’s territory.

“That would be like saying that a university in Vancouver is sufficient and that the rest of Canada, therefore, doesn’t need [another] university,” Redfern said.

Redfern said the creation of a knowledge and research base in the North would supercharge Canada’s quest to be a global leader in the circumpolar region.

Billions of litres of untreated wastewater pouring into Canadian waterways: Environment Canada

In Canada’s largest city, raw sewage flows into Lake Ontario so often, Toronto tells people they should never swim off the city’s beaches for least two days after it rains.

Across the country in Mission, B.C., a three-decade-old pipe that carries sewage under the Fraser River to a treatment plant in Abbotsford is so loaded operators can’t even slip a camera inside it to look for damage. If that pipe bursts, it will dump 11 million litres of putrid water from area homes and businesses into a critical salmon habitat every day it isn’t fixed.

While climate change is dominating the environmental conversations leading into the federal election campaign, politicians who show plans to stop the dumping of toxic, feces-laden sludge into Canada’s waterways will be very welcome, particularly by the municipal governments for whom the problem is a daily fight.

Mission Mayor Pam Alexis said she is “absolutely hopeful” wastewater will become an election issue, as her city races against time to keep its pipe from bursting.

The Conservatives and the Greens have both promised to end sewage dumping, though neither party has said exactly how. The NDP is promising a national freshwater strategy, building on a private member’s bill introduced by Essex, Ont., MP Tracey Ramsey in April. Part of that bill calls for an evaluation of Canada’s wastewater infrastructure in light of the impact of climate change.

The Liberals have not yet released their environment promises. In government, they set aside $2 billion for water and wastewater infrastructure, and since 2016 have approved $1.5 billion for 1,452 projects, everything from new sewers and lagoons to treatment-plant upgrades and dam repairs.

Conservative environment critic Ed Fast said his party’s plan will involve infrastructure programs.

“All I can say is that a Conservative government will place a higher priority on addressing this very critical problem for our environment than the Liberals have placed on it,” Fast said.

“We continue to see significant amounts of raw sewage being dumped into our waterways and that has to stop. The status quo is no longer acceptable.”

Many municipalities not tracking untreated waste

Environment Canada says between 2013 and 2017, more than one trillion litres of untreated wastewater are known to have leaked or been purposely dumped. The department says 2018 data isn’t ready for release.

The actual amount is higher because although Environment Canada requires municipalities to monitor and report how much untreated waste goes into waterways, many still don’t.

Often, that happens in communities with older systems that carry household waste and stormwater in the same pipes; when rain or a lot of melting snow overwhelms such systems, they’re usually designed to vent the diluted sewage into the nearest waterway.

In 2012 the Conservatives set tough new standards for treating wastewater, which take effect between 2020 and 2040 for different types of systems.

The Federation of Canadian Municipalities estimates the cost just to meet those standards is close to $18 billion. It would cost even more to fix city sewer systems so they aren’t constantly leaking raw wastewater when it rains.

Fixes still far off

Last fall Toronto started a $3-billion wastewater system project intended to stop raw sewage from leaking when it rains. City water department officials say it will take until 2038 to finish if Toronto has to fund it all alone. If the province and federal government agree to help it can be completed in 2030, keeping billions of untreated waste out of Lake Ontario.

Toronto says in 2018 more than 7.1 billion litres of raw sewage leaked into Lake Ontario and other waterways, because the combined sewer and storm water system can’t handle the capacity during rainstorms.

The City of Ottawa says it’s a year away from finishing a giant underground tunnel meant to contain sewage overflows in all but the most extreme cases. The four-year project is costing more than $230 million and it’s only part of a decade-long effort. Montreal notoriously dumped eight billion litres of sewage into the St. Lawrence River in 2015, just after the last election, because a major pipe needed repairs and there was nothing else to do with the waste.

Mayor Alexis in Mission says the cost of her city’s pipe-replacement project ballooned from $8 million to $32 million, in large part because of delays and additional requirements put on the project during the permitting process.

The federal government agreed to contribute half the original cost, but the city has had to reapply for more money and is still waiting, almost a year later, for a response.

Alexis says the sewer pipe is also about affordable housing, an issue all major parties know is key for Vancouver-area voters. Alexis said Mission is one of the last Lower Mainland communities where housing isn’t overly expensive, and its population has grown 25 per cent in less than a decade. But without a new sewer pipe that growth has to stop, she said, which is driving up home prices there, too.