MRC Pontiac signs new garbage contract with Centre FilloGreen
MRC Pontiac signs new garbage contract with Centre FilloGreen
On July 18, officials from MRC Pontiac met with representatives of the company Centre FilloGreen to sign a new contract for household waste collection and transport, beginning August 19 (Full text of the: contract, call for tenders and addenda). The company, based in Litchfield, was awarded the contract at the MRC Pontiac council meeting on June 18, submitting the lowest of two bids (the full criteria the MRC used to grade the submissions is in the call for tenders linked above). They also recently received approval from Quebec’s Ministry of Environment to operate a residential waste transfer site at their property, located along Rte. 301 in the Pontiac Industrial Park.
MRC Director General Kim Lesage said that the transfer should be a fairly smooth one.
The previous contract with 9828745 Canada Inc. (owned by Derek McGrimmon of Renfrew Ont.) was signed in 2019 and ends on August 18, 2024. Like the previous contract, the newly signed one is for three years, with the option to extend for two additional 12 month increments. The current price in the final year of the contract is $292.04/ton.
Centre FilloGreen’s winning bid was $285.14/ton for the first three years, rising to $338.03/ton and $342.63/ton in the following two years if the MRC chooses to extend their contract. McGrimmon’s bid was priced by year: 1st – $300.81/ton 2nd – $309.82/ton 3rd – $325.32/ton 4th – $341.60/ton 5th – $358.68/ton.
Given that the MRC produced an average of around 5,000 tons/year of household waste over the last five years, the contract would be worth approximately $1.5 million per year, or roughly $9 million total if extended for the full five years.
Centre FilloGreen is owned by the Gauvreau family, who also own Amor Construction in Masham, according to their website. Éric and Rock Gauvreau represented the company at the meeting with MRC officials, who included Warden Jane Toller, Lesage and members of the MRC environmental team.
CHIP 101.9 has reached out to Centre FilloGreen for comment, and this article will be updated in the event they respond.
Centre FilloGreen’s owners have previously expressed interest in opening a landfill at their site in Litchfield, purchasing advertising in local media pitching it as the sensible option, given the cost of trucking waste to the landfill in Lachute. However, company founder Roma Gauvreau told Le Droit last year that the project would require public buy-in, as all 18 municipalities of the MRC currently oppose local landfilling. He noted that their site is capable of accepting up to 4.6 million tons.
“It’ll depend. I don’t push anyone. I have refusals. […] Those who refuse are against burial, but they bury in Lachute. That doesn’t make sense. We could save money by sending the waste here in the region, but no,” he is quoted as saying (translated).
In the previously mentioned article, Gauvreau also addressed several citations the company’s construction waste sorting centre had received from the Ministry of Environment in recent years, when it operated under the name Centre de tri Pontiac for infractions including the improper storage of construction materials. He said that the issue was addressed and settled out of court with the Ministry of Environment.
