OttawaThe City of Ottawa’s plan to buy an east end landfill site passed at committee on Friday, sending the issue to council for a final vote next week.Site will become a landfill whether or not the city buys it, mayor arguesCampbell MacDiarmid · CBC News · Posted: Nov 21, 2025 3:46 PM EST | Last Updated: 44 minutes agoListen to this articleEstimated 4 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.Osgoode Coun. Isabelle Skalski says her constituents are opposed to buying a landfill in her ward. (Francis Ferland/CBC)The City of Ottawa’s plan to buy an east-end landfill site passed at committee on Friday, sending the issue to council for a final vote next week. The finance and corporate services committee heard from environmental groups, concerned residents and experts about the city’s proposal to purchase the Capital Region Resource Recovery Centre on Boundary Road near Highway 417 from Taggart Miller.The city’s general manager of public works Alain Gonthier said if the city doesn’t buy another site before its Trail Road landfill is full, it will eventually be forced to pay to tip waste at a private site.”That is very much market-driven,” he said of how much that could cost the city. “We lose a lot of control in terms of how we are managing waste at that time.”Mayor Mark Sutcliffe supports the plan to buy a new site, noting that the Capital Region Resource Recovery Centre will be a landfill irrespective of who owns it.What happened behind the scenes before the city’s pursuit of a landfill site went publicCouncillor blasts ‘completely ridiculous’ process around potential purchase of landfill siteOttawa in talks to buy east end landfill”It will either be owned by a private company, another municipality, or it will be owned by the City of Ottawa,” he said. “The discussion we need to have is around whether this is good value for taxpayers’ money as part of our long-range plans for solid waste, and whether it’s in the public interest for the city for the site to be privately owned, or for it to be owned by another municipality that would be trucking garbage into our city, or whether it’s in the public interest for the city to own the site.” Advantages of public ownershipCoun. Glen Gower believes Ottawa would be better off with the city running the landfill rather than a private company.”There’s no doubt in my mind that a publicly operated landfill gives us so much more control, so much more accountability around the operations,” he said.Duncan Bury of Waste Watch Ottawa agreed that the landfill would be better off in public hands.”A publicly owned landfill is preferred over a private site because the city can determine and restrict what waste to accept, and from where,” he said.But many locals living in the east end remain unconvinced, citing concerns over cost, the impact of trucking on infrastructure, and potential environmental impacts. “Nobody wants a landfill here,” Blackburn Hamlet resident Aidan McCannell told the committee. “Not public, not private.”The committee passed the motion to put the plan to council next week with only three votes against: Orléans South-Navan Coun. Catherine Kitts, Rideau-Jock Coun. David Brown and Orléans East-Cumberland Coun. Matthew Luloff.Rural/urban divideThe issue has largely divided councillors along a rural/urban divide, with those voting against it having significant numbers of rural constituents. “My ward is a dumpster for Ottawa,” said Brown, whose ward contains the Trail Road Landfill. Brown argued the city needed to move away from landfills toward more sustainable methods of waste management.Luloff noted that the cost for the purchase remained unknown and the bidding process is confidential. “It’s been reported that this will cost an extraordinary amount of money,” he said. “That money should be going towards modernizing our waste system, not doubling down on an outdated approach.”Coun. Isabelle Skalski, whose Osgood ward contains the site, opposes the plan to purchase the landfill. She did not vote as she is not on the committee, but warned against ignoring her constituents’ interests. “They’re tired of being the back yard dumping ground storage shed for the City of Ottawa,” she said.ABOUT THE AUTHORCampbell MacDiarmid is a reporter with the CBC Ottawa bureau
Council to vote on buying landfill in Ottawa’s east end
