According to the late Scott Adams you can only truly understand the value of a decision by looking at both its benefits/ positives as well as the costs/ negatives...especially when the issues are complex.
Adams also insisted that the evaluation can only be meaningful if the next most attractive option is compared to the chosen option.
There were at least three options:
1.incineration, Building a facility that could burn waste and use the steam for energy could cost between $497 million and $862 million. (No stated revenue/ benefits)
2. continuing to use the current dump alongside a private facility, ( cost of private facility use not estimated). The Taggart Miller site was going to be a landfill whether the city bought it or not. It had all the necessary approvals!
3.creating a new municipal landfill. Creating a new landfill ranked third of those three alternatives costing between $439 million and $761 million (staff) no benefits discussed.
So the fourth option???
4. Buy from Taggart: $95 million plus taxes and closing costs.
Is it likely that staff estimates were crafted to lead council to the decision?
Instead we have Mark Suttcliffe's word on it. He said, city had to pay for a waste facility eventually. He said Ottawa will save over the next century with this purchase.
He said Ottawa would spend four times as much if no decision was made.
He said another solution might save taxpayers a few dollars a year for the next 10 years and cost them hundreds and hundreds of dollars more.
I interpret this to mean there were options...what was the next preferred? 20-5 approved the dump purchase.
This $100 million purchase was not an election issue in 2022. Taggart started acummulating the land in 2005. It got its last approval in 2024. Two decades in the works...pretty good planning.
The City of Ottawa is purchasing the Capital Region Resource Recovery Centre, a private landfill in the east end (Boundary Road area), for $95 million plus taxes and closing costs. The 192-hectare site, owned by Taggart Miller Environmental Services, has a 30-year lifespan. It will replace the Trail Road landfill.
Key Details of the Landfill Purchase:
• Location: The site is located on Boundary Road, between Devine Road and Highway 417, in the rural southeast - just south of the Amazon warehouse.
• Cost: The purchase price is $95 million, approved by council in a 20-5 vote in January 2026.
Taggart Miller bought seven of the eight parcels for a combined $8.15 million over a five year period. 181 hectares, or about 94 per cent, of the site has been appraisaled at ~$23 million and to that add the cost of paperwork/provincial approvals done by Taggart. Maybe $10 million - that is a tidy profit to say the least.
Taggart could operate a dump but the sale of land is the real moneymaker....so good for them?
• Capacity & Lifespan: The facility is approved to accept up to 450,000 tons of waste annually, over 30-years.
• Rationale: The current Trail Road landfill is near capacity. By purchasing the site...it will be exclusively Ottawa waste not, say, Cornwall's or Toronto's waste.
• Opposition: Residents and local groups have expressed concerns regarding the secrecy of the deal, potential traffic (expected 800 trucks daily), and environmental impacts on nearby areas like Carlsbad Springs. The vote following a closed-door council meeting, passing with 20 in favour and five opposed.
Councillors with rural areas in their wards were opposed. Since Urban and suburban councillors don't have to worry about landfills this dump is the ironic counter to the usual 15-9 vote splitting. Payback is a bitch if there was any. Probably just a coincidence.
The ministry's approval required traffic controls, odour abatement and leachate treatment ...but you know, its a dump!
Approvals were in hand in 2017 (the permit changed in May 2024 to include residential waste) despite concerns for leachate in well water, traffic from trucks and...odour.
The Taggart Miller site was going to be a landfill whether the city bought it or not. It had all the necessary approvals!
• Timeline: Staff has the authority to negotiate a final agreement by the end of March 2026.
While the site is designed for landfilling. Future waste-to-energy technologies or incineration ON SITE are possible.
Reference: Ottawa councillors vote to allow staff to finalize purchase of dump site | CBC News https://share.google/Vr2Q8Kdpw6zsmDUfe
