Plan to buy landfill site moves forward after closed-door council meeting

Ottawa·BreakingMayor Mark Sutcliffe says city staff will move forward with a bid to buy a private landfill site in southeast Ottawa for an undisclosed price.Purchase price for 192-hectare site near Amazon warehouse in southeast Ottawa remains confidentialListen to this articleEstimated 2 minutesThe audio version of this article is generated by text-to-speech, a technology based on artificial intelligence.The joint venture Taggart Miller Environmental Services Inc. received ministry approval in 2017 for a landfill on Boundary Road near Highway 417 after years of studies and protests. (Felix Desroches/CBC)Mayor Mark Sutcliffe says city staff will move forward with a bid to buy a private landfill site in southeast Ottawa for an undisclosed price.The announcement followed a more than two-hour meeting behind closed doors on Wednesday where councillors could privately discuss the deal, which is protected by a non-disclosure agreement. Sutcliffe said no votes were taken during the meeting, except on procedural matters and directions to staff.”The City of Ottawa will continue its participation in the competitive bidding process,” Sutcliffe announced after the closed-door session.City staff say they will release more details — including the cost — if its bid is successful and the sale closes.”This is an issue of timing, not transparency,” Sutcliffe said.The 192-hectare site, known as the Capital Region Resource Recovery Centre, is owned by Taggart Miller Environmental Services. Located near Highway 417 just south of Amazon’s distribution centre, it has provincial approval to accept up to 450,000 tonnes of waste per year.City staff call it a rare opportunity to add 30 years of landfill capacity as the existing Trail Road facility near Barrhaven runs out of space.Osgoode Coun. Isabelle Skalski, whose ward includes the project site, has repeatedly criticized the process as rushed and opaque.Following Wednesday’s meeting, she said it “stinks.”ABOUT THE AUTHORArthur White-Crummey is a reporter at CBC Ottawa. He has previously worked as a reporter in Saskatchewan covering the courts, city hall and the provincial legislature. You can reach him at arthur.white-crummey@cbc.ca.