City moving ahead on NL landfill expansion

Diane Johnston
Speaker Reporter
TEMISKAMING SHORES -- The city is taking the first step in an anticipated three-year journey to solve its trash disposal needs.
Temiskaming Shores council has approved the hiring of AMEC Earth and Environmental to guide the municipality through the environmental assessment process to establish an expanded New Liskeard landfill.
The total cost, spread over three years, will be almost $430,000.
The expanded site is expected to meet the city’s waste disposal needs through 2039.
The New Liskeard landfill, which has been in use since 1916, reached its capacity a year ago.
All of the city’s waste, together with that from Cobalt, is currently going to the Haileybury landfill. But it is expected to be filled by mid-2016.
Earlier this summer, city council opted to expand the New Liskeard landfill, at a total cost estimated at between $4 million and $8.4 million.
But the detailed plan has to be drafted and then approved by the Ontario Ministry of the Environment.
In July, the city contacted nine engineering firms with a request for proposals to finalize the design and undertake the required environmental assessment.
Four firms responded, with costs ranging from $179,640 from Trow Associates Inc. to $427,260 from AMEC.
After evaluating the proposals, city staff recommended that the municipality opt for AMEC.
EVALUATION
At a committee-of-the-whole meeting earlier this week, councillors quizzed city staff on the evaluation process in light of the wide range in prices.
AMEC’s submission was judged superior to that of Trow’s in terms of expertise, staffing and methodology, Councillor Tom Wells said.
But its cost was also more than double the proposal by Trow, he said.
“So that raised concern flags for me, because that is a significant amount of money that ratepayers will have to bear.”
The recommendation to go with AMEC hinged largely on uncertainty of the final cost, said Dan Harvey, the city’s acting director of public works.
Two of the firms -- AMEC and Genivar - -submitted proposals with upset limits outlining total costs, he said.
Two firms -- Trow and AECOM -- submitted prices with provisions that there could be additional costs depending on, for example, requests from the ministry for additional testing, he said.
“In the request for proposal, we did ask for an upset limit. We didn’t want any surprises, and we wanted the worst case scenario so that we could budget and plan properly,” Mr. Harvey said.
The proposals also varied in terms of hours estimated for the project, from 1,397 by Trow to 3,155 by AMEC.
City staff project that roughly 3,000 hours will be required, he said.
By that calculation, he said the firms’ hourly rates, based on their proposals, would be comparable.
AMEC had also completed the feasibility study recommending that the city opt to expand the New Liskeard landfill as a solution to its long-term waste disposal needs, he said.
“We felt that their proposal was much more comprehensive and they seemed to have a better understanding of what we were looking for.”
Councillors Burl Regan and Mike Pearson questioned the consideration of any submissions that did not meet the city’s criteria in its request for proposals.
“We felt that, to be just to everyone who submitted a bid, that we would analyze them,” Mr. Harvey said.
Proposals that were not deemed complete were docked heavily in their evaluation, he said.
BACKGROUND WORK
Mayor Judy Pace commended the discussion of the process.
The public, she said, doesn’t see the “hours and hours and hours” of background work by city staff before they bring a recommendation to council.
She was also pleased to see progress on finding a solution to the city’s waste disposal needs.
“It’s wonderful to see this going forward finally, and to know that we’re actually able to have an expansion of the landfill that’s going to carry us many, many years into the future,” she said.
Council unanimously supported the selection of AMEC. A bylaw awarding the contract will be considered when council meets September 21.