Work on an organic waste project at the city's main wastewater treatment plant continues to move ahead.
J.L. Richards and Associates Limited has been awarded the $283,359 contract for the preliminary design of a co-digestion projection at the Mattagami Water Pollution Control Plant.
The proposed facility would co-digest organic waste and sewage sludge at the city's main treatment plant. The goal is to reduce the food and organic waste —which generates the greenhouse gas methane when breaking down — from going to the landfill.
The potential cost for the municipality to operate the facility is not known yet.
Ahead of approving the work at the Aug. 13 Timmins council meeting, Coun. Steve Black asked if there would still be a chance to review trade-off opportunities after this phase.
"We will review it again just to make sure the trade-off option is still there since technologies have evolved since the last time we’ve all discussed this. We’re going to validate, verify and then proceed with the initial design, 30 per cent,” said Scott Tam, director of growth and infrastructure.
Talks about the potential facility have been ongoing for some time.
When it was discussed last year, Black had hesitations that the project is based on the carbon tax program promoted by the current Liberal government.
Canadians will head to the polls for a federal election in October 2025 unless the writ drops before then. The Conservative party, who is ahead in the polls, has promised to scrap the carbon tax.
A 2018 food and organic waste provincial policy statement sets out targets for different areas.
In Northern Ontario, municipalities with a population over 50,000 people or with a population density of 300 people per square kilometre or more are required to offer curbside collection of residential food and organic waste in urban areas.
Timmins does not meet those requirements. In the 2021 census, the city's population was 41,145, which was down from 2016, with the population density being 13.9 people per square kilometre.
Census data released earlier this year show that in 2023 the city's population was 44,819.
