ANNAPOLIS COUNTY, NS - The chief administrative officer of Annapolis County says it didn’t stop paying its bill to Valley Waste: cheques have been written but conditions apply.
Annapolis County has withdrawn from the Valley Waste-Resource Management (VWRM) organization. In an open public letter published on the County of Annapolis website earlier this month, Warden Timothy Habinski said this matter relates to contract obligations that have been ignored and permitting contracts to be implemented without the opportunity for municipalities to properly review or vote on those contracts.
Annapolis County wrote a cheque in trust that can’t be cashed until certain conditions are met regarding contracts. In an earlier interview, Barry Corbin, vice-chairman of the Valley Waste board, said conditions attached to the cheque are contrary to some of the operating conditions of the inter-municipal service agreement and could not be approved.
In a prepared statement dated Aug. 8, the County of Annapolis said the issue is that Valley Waste is operating without an approved budget. Municipalities are not permitted to give money to a contract that does not have an approved budget and the municipality is following this requirement.
ALSO SEE:
FUTURE IMPACT OF ANNAPOLIS COUNTY WITHDRAWING FROM VALLEY WASTE-RESOURCE MANAGEMENT UNCLEAR
VALLEY WASTE VOWS TO HALT CURBSIDE SERVICES IN ANNAPOLIS COUNTY AUG. 18
ANNAPOLIS COUNTY EXPROPRIATES VALLEY WASTE’S LAWRENCETOWN TRANSFER STATION
In an Aug. 23 interview, Annapolis County chief administrative officer John Ferguson confirmed that the issue surrounding contracts is one of the major ones for Annapolis County.
He said there have actually been two cheques to be held in trust forwarded from Annapolis County at two different times. A cheque for $524,000 was sent on July 24, two days before VWRM made the statement that Annapolis County owed them more than $700,000.
Ferguson said a proposed budget put forward by VWRM in July that was not voted on by Annapolis County totaled $1.641 million. He said Valley Waste was operating without an approved budget for 139 days as of Aug. 17.
“If you do the math, the most that would have been owed by Annapolis County up until Aug. 17 was approximately $625,000,” Ferguson said.
He said Annapolis County forwarded a second cheque last week worth more than that amount, $641,000, but also with conditions that certain contracts couldn’t be paid for by Annapolis County because those contracts were not approved by Annapolis County as required by the inter-municipal service agreement.
He said VWRM has rejected the offer. Annapolis County received correspondence from VWRM stating that the amount owed is greater than the second cheque. Ferguson said the question was asked at a Aug. 21 VWRM meeting where the higher figure came from. The answer was that the higher figure was what the VWRM board directed.
“We’re not sure where the number came from for that particular figure,” Ferguson said. “If you look at it from an annual budget in the amount of time that has been put towards services, the numbers don’t add up.”
Ferguson earlier said that the expropriation of the Lawrencetown transfer station came as a “matter of public interest” after VWRM prohibited Annapolis County’s use of the facility.
He said they wouldn’t further discuss contacting the RCMP about Valley Waste, as they didn’t want to do anything to prejudice the investigation. This action was taken as the result of a piece of correspondence the municipality received from Valley Waste in July. The municipality has declined releasing that correspondence to media and Ferguson confirmed on Aug. 23 that they wouldn’t be commenting further on the complaint, as it is in the hands of the RCMP.
Provincial RCMP spokesperson Dal Hutchinson earlier verified that a complaint was received on July 31 and that police are looking into the matter.
Updates on the waste collection issue are to be released through prepared statements on the municipality’s website. The County of Annapolis has contracted waste collection services to EFR Environmental, using the same collection rules that were in place under VWRM.
Biodegradable plastic bags are being provided to residents to put compostable materials in until the municipality’s new green bins are available. VWRM has been collecting its green bins from Annapolis County homes.
Ferguson said on Aug. 23 that the county has also received correspondence from VWRM stating that if the municipality paid the bill, VWRM would consider selling them the green bins. He said Annapolis County could not entertain purchasing the bins without an approved budget or without VWRM accepting the conditions that the municipality has put forward.
