City, former waste collection provider clash in court

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This article was published 15/01/2024 (963 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A trial is now underway in a waste collection company’s five-year-old, $60-million lawsuit against the City of Winnipeg.

Emterra Environmental first raised the legal challenge in June 2018, which accuses the city of breaching its Aug. 1, 2012, to Sept. 30, 2017, contract with the company. That deal required Emterra to provide garbage, recycling, bulk waste and yard waste collection in Winnipeg.

During opening arguments Monday, Emterra’s lawyer said the company relied on the city to provide accurate information for electronic tracking of automated garbage and recycling bins.

“The city failed in this venture, not slightly but miserably. And, having failed miserably, rather than acknowledge… its failures, it decided to pass off those results of their failures to my client,” said Robert Tapper.

At some points, Tapper alleged the city was dishonest and violated terms of the contract.

Both Tapper and a lawyer for the city pegged the lawsuit’s value at roughly $60 million in court Monday, lower than Emterra’s $67-million estimate from 2018.

Tapper accused the city of offering cart inventory data that was riddled with errors, at times assigning garbage carts to incorrect addresses, registering the wrong number of carts at some properties and selecting garbage carts that weren’t suited to Winnipeg winter temperatures.

He also alleged company owner Emmie Leung was forced to pay unfair penalties to the city.

“She lost tens of millions of dollars… because of the mistakes of the city,” said Tapper.

Leung told court the problems triggered complaints and hefty penalties, eventually leading her to instruct crews to collect trash even when they technically shouldn’t, due to customer errors.

“Because of the outcry in the public and the council (members) and the mayor… After a few months, I (said), ‘We can’t handle it. Just pick it up,’” Leung said.

By contrast, the city’s lawyer told court Emterra was responsible for consistent issues with trash collection and argued the company’s claims against the city should be dismissed.

“We expect the evidence will show that Emterra’s performance was, to put it mildly, substandard… The start-ups were nothing short of a disaster,” said Thor Hansell.

Hansell alleged the company was not ready to begin collection when the contract started, lacking sufficient drivers and vehicles. “The result was that the city was bombarded with complaints to its 311 line.”

Hansell said missed waste collections sometimes affected entire streets and neighbourhoods at once.

“All of which… created a massive amount of work for the city,” the lawyer said.

The city also argues it was Emterra’s responsibility to set up the data collection system under the contract.

Tapper argued the city left Emterra to cope with missed and late pickups.

Hansell countered, saying the municipal government “went out of its way to try and help Emterra get to where it needed to be.”

In a 2018 legal filing, the city stated it had reached a settlement agreement with Emterra in October 2013, which suspended financial penalties for service deficiencies and refunded the company $4.1 million. The city said it was meant to be a final agreement between the two parties, which it alleged Emterra’s lawsuit later breached.

In court, Tapper argued the settlement reflected incidents at the time it was made and did not rule out the option of a future lawsuit.

The allegations have not been proven in court. The trial is scheduled to continue for eight weeks.

Miller Waste Systems and GFL Environmental currently hold the city’s garbage and recycling collection contracts, taking over from Emterra in October 2017.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

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