Landfill environment monitoring program scrutinized for PST charges
City councillors took aim at PST charges on construction and other projects Monday night, while expressing discontent with a costly provincial program.
A report and request to retain the current contractor for the 2018 Landfill Environmental Monitoring Program was brought before council. The contractor performs tests to ensure that the city’s landfill is operating in compliance with the Saskatchewan Ministry of Environment’s Permit to Operate.
The city is required to have annual reporting and monitoring completed by a qualified professional. This includes sampling surface and groundwater, developing a 3D groundwater model for the landfill, monitoring leachate containment, and ensuring negative environmental impacts, if any, are controlled and corrected.
It, however, comes with a cost of $195,206 plus PST. Over $90,000 in work items from 2016 and 2017 are also being carried forward this year, pertaining to the development of a multi-year groundwater model and pumping test investigation. This money was not spent in those years. The funds for the remainder of the program were budget for in 2018. The city cannot perform the testing in-house at this time as it requires a certified laboratory.