Landfill blockade costs city at least $400K

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This article was published 05/01/2023 (719 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The City of Winnipeg will spend at least $411,000 more on residential garbage collection after protesters blockaded its only active landfill to back their demand to search for the remains of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.

A city report states the added budget covers December tipping fees that were charged when a blockade at the Brady Road landfill forced the city to divert waste to two privately owned landfills outside of Winnipeg.

Relatives of missing and slain Indigenous women and their supporters began protesting at the landfill on Dec. 11. The city report notes a partial blockade was followed by a more permanent one on Dec. 18.

While the landfill resumed normal business hours on Friday, the cost of added tipping fees beyond Dec. 31 is not yet known, said Tim Shanks, the city’s director of water and waste.

“(This is only) the budget adjustment required to square up the financials for 2022 … The primary cost to the budget is the out-of-pocket cost, the difference in tonnage fees between the residential garbage collection being disposed of at Brady versus … a private landfill,” said Shanks.

City officials aren’t sure how much revenue may have been lost from companies and residents who decided not to go to the landfill in recent weeks.

Shanks said it’s also not clear whether the city will be asked by its garbage contractors to cover added travel and fuel costs due to trips to landfills beyond city limits.

Morgan Harris’s relatives and their supporters began the demonstration at the Brady landfill. A second group gathered at the Prairie Green Landfill just north of the city, where city police believe the remains of Harris, 39, and Marcedes Myran, 26, are located.

Alleged serial killer Jeremy Skibicki, 35, is charged with four counts of first-degree murder in the deaths of Indigenous women Harris, Myran, Rebecca Contois and an unidentified victim who’s been named Buffalo Woman by elders.

Operations at Prairie Green landfill paused in early December but partially resumed on Dec. 30, with a section cordoned off where remains are suspected to be.

An Indigenous-led study is underway to determine the feasibility of searching Prairie Green.

Protestors at Brady called for its operations to stop to search for additional missing or slain Indigenous women, such as Tanya Nepinak, whose remains are believed to be at that landfill. Police did not find Nepinak’s remains during a search that lasted for about a week in 2012.

While Brady landfill is now fully open, an encampment of protestors is expected to remain near the site’s entrance, the city noted in a Thursday evening press release.

Shanks said the city is grateful to be able to continue garbage collection service and is still in discussions with those staying at the site.

“It was just the ongoing engagement and dialogue (that) got us to a compromise solution, where we can do what we can to help support the family but also return to providing the… essential service (at) the landfill,” he said.

The city previously confirmed the portion of the landfill where Winnipeg Police Service found Contois’ remains has been sealed off and is not in use.

Demands to search the landfills for possible human remains followed a Winnipeg Police Service assessment that determined there was “no hope” of finding the remains of Morgan and Harris, largely due to safety hazards and tonnes of waste that arrived at Prairie Green since May, including animal remains and asbestos.

In a text message to the Free Press on Thursday, Morgan Harris’s daughter Cambria Harris confirmed that while the protestors disagree with the continuation of dumping, they will not block it.

She also stated the group did not block vehicles from dumping waste and won’t leave the site until a search for missing and slain women takes place.

“We plan to have camp set up until the search is done. In the meantime, we will continue raising awareness of our situation to whomever visits the landfill,” she said.

Coun. Brian Mayes, chairman of council’s water and waste committee, said he’s relieved garbage collection can continue amid a sensitive situation.

“It’s certainly unfortunate, but I’m pleased that we’ve managed to get it resolved. Hopefully, we can sort out this issue, get (a) study done (on the feasibility of a landfill search),” said Mayes.

joyanne.pursaga@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @joyanne_pursaga

Joyanne Pursaga
Reporter

Born and raised in Winnipeg, Joyanne loves to tell the stories of this city, especially when politics is involved. Joyanne became the city hall reporter for the Winnipeg Free Press in early 2020.

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