Should the city buy this landfill site? Residents weigh inSome people who live near private land that the City of Ottawa is eyeing as the future site of an additional landfill say the city should purchase it to help Ottawa get closer to its waste diversion targets. Others are worried about the financial and environmental costs.Ottawa city councillors will be asked Friday to consider buying a landfill site in Ottawa’s rural southeast, and in a staff report thin on details — including a price — staff describe it as a strategic move given the municipality’s main landfill is quickly filling up. It could mean residential garbage trucks one day driving back and forth to the 192-hectare property near Highway 417 and Boundary Road, bringing waste to a site that could last 30 years and has a land size similar to the Trail Road facility west of Barrhaven. About a decade ago, however, the site was a source of intense opposition. Residents organized in groups and planted signs saying “No Dump in Carlsbad.” A former council even provided $50,000 to help their fight, and Mayor Mark Sutcliffe’s predecessor Jim Watson wrote a letter opposing it. The site owner, Taggart Miller Environmental Services Inc., ultimately got its Ontario government approval in 2017, but the landfill has yet to operate. Today, it appears as unremarkable rural fields near the city’s first Amazon logistics warehouse. In the leadup to Friday’s discussion, CBC News has pieced together how the city has gone from landfill opponent to prospective purchaser, including how Taggart Group — one the partners in the group that owns the land — first approached the mayor’s office to tell the city it was selling. Since that meeting last April — which was arranged by a government relations firm that has a history with Sutcliffe — City of Ottawa staff say they have been doing their due diligence in a confidential process bound by a non-disclosure agreement. They’ve advised council members in closed meetings about preparing proposals to bid to become the landfill site’s new owner.Meanwhile, residents have renewed their fight. The Carlsbad Springs Community Association says the city is neglecting the needs of rural residents with a landfill that could affect their well water, air quality and roads. Should the city be sold the landfill, it will also take on more debt to pay the unknown price tag — its solid waste reserves are currently in a deficit. Garbage fees would need to rise in the near future but would balance out over the long term, staff say.City use of private landfillsAnyone watching the garbage and recycling file in recent years will know Ottawa was hard at work on a master plan as it faces a conundrum: the population grows and the Trail Road landfill creeps closer to capacity with each passing year. In recent years, the city has changed its policy to limit garbage to three items at the curbside. It’s also exploring an incinerator and will next year start to send a third of residential waste to two private landfills: GFL’s in Moose Creek and Waste Management’s site on Carp Road.In the months after a 2023 decision to start using private landfills, and as councillors continued to debate its options, Taggart Miller asked Ontario’s environment ministry to amend its licence at the Boundary Road landfill site. For seven years, it had been allowed to accept waste from businesses, industry and large institutions, along with apartment and condo buildings — though nothing of that sort has happened on the site. After the Ontario government gave its OK in May 2024, Taggart Miller was also allowed to take in all residential waste. “This was simply a good business decision as it would allow us to take an additional waste stream and be more environmentally sustainable,” Joe Johnson, president of Miller Waste Systems — the other partner in Taggart Miller Environmental Services Inc. — told CBC News in an email. “Through private and public consultations with the industry, [the city] made it clear that the community needed more landfill capacity.” Sometime after that, the Taggart and Miller families decided to sell their landfill site. Johnson said they engaged BMO Capital Markets to put in place the process to solicit bids from prospective purchasers. This happened as the city was exploring three waste scenarios: incineration, continuing to use the current Trail Road site alongside a private facility, or creating a new municipal landfill. Staff are due to report back in early 2027.For the city to now be eyeing a new landfill site, “when we haven’t actually had a discussion … about what the future of waste looks like here in Ottawa,” is like putting “the cart before the horse,” said Osgoode Coun. Isabelle Skalski, who represents the area. Email to mayor’s office The city learned about the Taggart-Miller sale when Taggart Group approached the mayor’s office last April through a government relations firm — one with ties to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe — in order to set up a meeting.The lobbying registry shows a consultant with Syntax Strategic sent an email to Mayor Mark Sutcliffe and his chief of staff, Mathieu Gravel, on April 1. Ottawa Mayor Mark Sutcliffe is seen speaking at an event at city hall on Wednesday. (Francis Ferland/CBC)CBC News asked the mayor’s office if the process to bid on the landfill originated in his office.“Syntax, on behalf of Taggart, contacted Mathieu Gravel, the mayor’s chief of staff, in the spring to make him aware that the process to dispose of this property was forthcoming, and to ask for a meeting with their client,” wrote Tahera Mufti, Sutcliffe’s director of communications.“In response to this, Mathieu convened a meeting with Michelle Taggart and Alain Gonthier, GM of Public Works, so the responsible senior city staff would become aware and take the lead on the matter going forward. This meeting of April 9 was disclosed in the lobbyist registry.”Given Syntax Strategic’s CEO is Jennifer Stewart, who was one of Sutcliffe’s honorary campaign co-chairs in the 2022 election and was deeply involved in the communications for his campaign, CBC News asked if the mayor sees a conflict of interest.Mufti responded that all the rules were followed, and the file was handled in a routine way by referring it to senior staff.“Mathieu offered Syntax the same treatment he offers every resident, stakeholder or lobbyist, which is to respond to emails or phone calls and engage in good faith in order to assess the merits of an inquiry or proposal,” Mufti wrote. “Any company exploring a potential disposition of land, regardless of who their representatives are, would be directed to the relevant general manager. That is exactly what happened here with the referral to the GM of public works.”CBC News also asked Stewart if she feels her firm places the mayor in a conflict of interest when it lobbies the city on various files, which are recorded as required in the lobbying registry. “I do not feel the firm puts anyone in a conflict, as this was simply to inform the city of a process to sell the landfill site to a private waste management owner, or any municipality in Ontario,” Stewart answered by email. Notifying the city of the sale was “entirely in the public interest,” she added.Given members of council might now be thinking of the next election, with nominations beginning May 1, CBC News also inquired if Stewart or staff at Syntax Strategic were involved in any re-election planning of the mayor’s. “I have not committed at this time, in fact I am giving serious thought to running for elected office myself,” Stewart responded.Unknown landfill priceHeading into Friday’s meeting, and the final discussion to follow at council on Nov. 26, the public will still not know what the city is willing to pay for the landfill site. That shortlist of three other waste scenarios city staff are going over in their separate process ranged in price from about $440 million to $860 million.Staff write in their report last week that the time and money Taggart Miller spent securing the landfill’s approval “cannot be overstated, nor should their rarity be ignored, especially given that Ontario’s available landfilling space is expected to run out within the next decade.”CBC News searched land registry files and calculated Taggart Miller would have purchased 447 hectares across seven property parcels between July 2012 and April 2017 for a combined $8.15 million.But the current price the city is considering takes into account the property’s appraised value, the estimated worth of the environmental assessments and approvals if performed today, and the value of the potential business opportunity.A Miller Waste Systems garbage truck enters Ottawa’s Trail Road landfill on Friday, Oct. 21, 2022 (Jean Delisle/CBC)Meanwhile, the process itself was not meant to have any public element, adds the president of Miller Waste Systems. “It was the City of Ottawa that asked BMO to put an additional and unusual step in the process to consult the public,” he wrote, and Taggart and Miller agreed because of their ties to the city, he added.
What happened behind the scenes before the city’s pursuit of a landfill site went public
