Landfill protests added $400K to city’s garbage costs this year: report

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This article was published 30/10/2023 (718 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The cost to provide garbage collection in Winnipeg has increased this year after protests temporarily blocked access to the city’s only active landfill.

The water and waste department is seeking $406,000 more for its 2023 tax-supported budget to cover higher tipping fees, which it paid to drop off residential garbage at private landfills when it was prevented from doing so at city-owned Brady Road landfill.

“The Brady Road Resource Management Facility… landfill has been closed multiple times in 2023 due to protest blockades. As waste collection is considered an essential service, collection and disposal continued by diverting garbage to two privately owned landfills outside Winnipeg,” writes Lucy Szkwarek, manager of finance and administration for the city’s water and waste department, in a new report.

The department is required to request finance committee approval for any budget overrun in a public report that explains the reason for it.

The $406,000 tab does not include some costs, such as those related to security, a secondary access road to Brady landfill and lost revenue, which the city is still compiling and expects to release Friday, city spokeswoman Lisa Marquardson said in an email.

In February 2023, the city said it faced about $915,000 in added costs and lost revenues due to the protests that began late last year.

Protesters began demonstrating at the landfill in December 2022 to back calls to search for the remains of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

Those demands came after alleged serial killer Jeremy Skibicki, 35, was charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Morgan Harris, Marcedes Myran, Rebecca Contois and an unidentified victim named who’s been named Mashkode Bizhiki’ikwe (Buffalo Woman) by Indigenous elders.

Harris’s relatives and their supporters began the demonstration at Brady Road, while a second group gathered at the privately owned Prairie Green Landfill in the Rural Municipality of Rosser north of the city, where police believe the remains of Harris and Myran are located.

Protesters first blockaded the entrance to the Brady facility on Dec. 11, 2022. A permanent encampment established Dec. 18 led the city to close the landfill until Jan. 5, according to the civic report. The city says further temporary disruptions happened in April and July.

On July 14, a temporary injunction was issued through court to prohibit further blockades.

“Price should not be an issue for our women. There’s just no price to life.”– Grand Chief Cathy Merrick of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs

Search proponents don’t believe costs associated with the protest should be the concern, given the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women in Canada.

“Price should not be an issue for our women, said Grand Chief Cathy Merrick of the Assembly of Manitoba Chiefs. “There’s just no price to life.”

The July protest was sparked by the former premier Heather Stefanson’s refusal to search Prairie Green Landfill. Merrick said First Nations people shouldn’t be forced to protest to be heard.

“If we were heard and invited to these conversations, then we wouldn’t have to protest,” she said.

Coun. Jeff Browaty, chairman of council’s finance committee, also stressed that the protests are linked to a serious and sensitive issue.

“It’s fairly unprecedented and (there is) grieving the families are going through… You have to appreciate the loss of loved ones and the uncertainty (they face) is a challenge,” said Browaty.

While some protesters are still present at an encampment at Brady Road, service has operated normally in recent months, according to the city.

“There are still folks there and there has not been any (recent) operational disruption,” said Tim Shanks, the city’s director of water and waste.

— with files from Chris Kitching

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga