The City of Montreal has just extended its contracts to send a good part of its compost off the island, particularly to Ontario, while awaiting the opening of its own organic materials processing centers (CTMO).
The elected officials of the municipal council approved the renewal until September 30 of the agreements with the companies which currently manage the contents of Montrealers’ brown bins. An expense of approximately $8 million.
Under these contracts, thousands of tonnes of Montreal compost are sent by truck to Moose Creek, Ontario.
These contracts were awarded due to the significant delay in delivery of the Saint-Laurent composting plant and the Montreal-East biomethanization plant, which should have received this waste for years. The construction sites were notably paralyzed by commercial conflicts.
After a new agreement between the multinational Veolia and the City of Montreal last spring, including a budget increase of 32 million, the two CTMO must now be completed during the current year.
“We can’t wait”
The elected official responsible for the environment within the Plante administration, Marie-Andrée Mauger, argued that the two projects were not experiencing new delays and that these contract extensions were predictable.
“We can’t wait to see our two organic materials processing centers begin their operations,” said Marie-Andrée Mauger at Monday’s municipal council meeting. “To date, both projects are progressing well and are on schedule. » The CTMO in Saint-Laurent must be commissioned from spring 2024, while that in Montreal-East must receive its first tons of compost next fall.
The opposition at city hall, however, criticized the new spending.
“I have lost confidence in the credibility of the administration, because what[elle promet] is never delivered on time, always at the expense of Montrealers,” lamented opposition MP Alan DeSousa.