Municipal Affairs
March 27, 2008

Members Appointed to Greater Avalon Regional Waste Management Committee

The Honourable Dave Denine, Minister of Municipal Affairs, has announced the appointment of a 16-person Greater Avalon Regional Waste Management Committee to oversee the modernization of solid waste management for the Avalon region.

"The establishment of the Greater Avalon committee is an important step toward further advancing the Provincial Waste Management Strategy, and will play a significant role in working with municipalities and building community support to regionalize waste management for the Avalon region," said Minister Denine. "The committee will initiate action to support a single waste management facility, which has been identified as Robin Hood Bay, to serve the Greater Avalon region of the province at a reasonable cost to residents, and which will incorporate programs of household hazardous waste, waste reduction and diversion, composting and recycling."

The Greater Avalon Regional Waste Management Committee will be comprised of 50 per cent representation held by the City of St. John�s, with the remaining 50 per cent held by representatives of municipalities located throughout the region. An independent chairperson will be selected by the established committee to guide implementation of the Greater Avalon regional plan. The committee will work to establish an elected authority under the Regional Service Boards Act for the Greater Avalon Region through an election process. The appointments shall remain in effect for a two-year, renewable term, or until changes are required as a result of its transformation into an elected regional authority.

The appointees to the committee represent a cross-section of the geographical and sectoral interests in the regional waste management system. Appointees from the City of St. John�s include Councillors Ron Ellsworth, Shannie Duff, Tom Hann, Art Puddister, Wally Collins, and Ronald Penney, Chief Commissioner and City Solicitor, Paul Mackey, Director of Public Works and Parks and Robert Bishop, Director of Finance, and municipal representatives Robert Codner, Town of Torbay; Leo Moriarty, Town of Ferryland; Kevin Power, Town of Placentia; Gladys Mercer, Town of Carbonear; Ed Grant, City of Mount Pearl; Lisa Browne, Town of Clarenville; Joy Dobbie, Local Service District of Cavendish; and Kim Crosbie, Town of South River.

The mandate of the Greater Avalon Regional Waste Management Committee is sufficiently broad to enable it to advance a waste management action plan for the region. The geographic area to be considered includes the Greater Avalon including Clarenville and east including Random Island, and west including Swift Current, and at a later date the Greater Avalon system may accept waste from the Bonavista and Burin Peninsulas.

Therefore, the committee is mandated to:

  • Carry out consultations with municipal leaders, the industrial, commercial and institutional sectors and other applicable stakeholders on the proposed system and operating parameters in order to develop an awareness and build support for a regional system.
  • Assess the feedback from the consultation process and utilize that information in the validation of the findings and approach recommended in the earlier report. In particular, the committee must consider the practicality of incorporating the waste from the major industrial users in the area into a regional waste facility.
  • Undertake a community awareness campaign and educate users on the importance of waste diversion and the benefits of programs such as composting.
  • Develop a transitional strategy to consolidate existing sites and plan for the ultimate closure of existing sites and integration into a singular facility.
  • Undertake a phased consolidation of waste site operations in preparation for the development of the single regional facility.
  • Develop a transitional plan to move the committee membership and chairperson from an appointed committee to an elected regional authority.
  • Formally establish a Regional Waste Management Authority through an election process.

In May 2007, the Provincial Government announced implementation of the $200 million Provincial Waste Management Strategy, with a goal for full implementation by 2020. The strategy calls for three full-service regional waste management facilities on the Avalon, Central and in Western areas of the island portion of the province, and programs which will be developed for the zones in Labrador to meet the provincial waste management goals.

Regional waste management authorities will be established in the various waste management zones on the island and in Labrador. The Greater Avalon Regional Site is expected to be operational by 2010, the Central site by 2011, and the Western Regional site no later than 2016. The provincial strategy will aim to reduce the amount of waste going into landfills in the province by 50 per cent supported by the use of disposal bans and development of new waste diversion programs.

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Media contact:

Heather MacLean
Director of Communications
Department of Municipal Affairs
709-729-1983, 690-2498
 heathermaclean@gov.nl.ca

2008 03 27                                                     2:30 p.m.

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