Willa Thorpe is the chief administrative officer of the Region of Queens Municipality. (Rick Conrad)

Employees facing layoff when the Region of Queens closes its recycling depot may still have a job with the municipality.

The region announced this week that it would close its materials recovery facility on Dec. 1 in response to new regulations from the Nova Scotia government.

The province is shifting the responsibility for sorting plastics and other packaging to the companies that produce it. That means municipalities won’t need their own sorting facilities anymore.

In Queens, that will affect eight unionized employees.

Willa Thorpe, the region’s chief administrative officer, told QCCR on Thursday that the municipality will try to find other jobs for those workers.

So if there’s an opportunity through current vacancies here in the organization where we have the opportunity to train folks and have them shift to a different position, we’ll do that.

“So if there’s an opportunity through current vacancies here in the organization where we have the opportunity to train folks and have them shift to a different position, we’ll do that.”

She said they’re also going to hook workers up with provincial and federal supports from Nova Scotia Works and Service Canada.

Unionized employees at the Region of Queens Waste Management Facility are represented by Local 1928 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers.

The local signed a new contract with the region after a week-long strike in January.

Thorpe said the agreement requires five days’ notice of any ceasing of operation or service that will affect jobs. She said managers wanted to give the affected employees more notice, so they met with workers and their local union representative as soon as council decided to close the facility.

“We think it’s important that our employees know exactly what’s going on, that their livelihood may be impacted, and so rather than follow the (basic language) of the collective agreement, we think we hold ourselves to a higher standard. So we actually met with staff a few hours after meeting with council, so the same day as opposed to waiting, so that those employees can be confident they know exactly what’s going on.”

Some workers will continue to be employed until at least Dec. 1, depending on how long it takes to wind down the facility, Thorpe said.

She said the collective agreement does not provide for severance pay. But she said “the region is actually actively working on providing some severance to those employees.”

She didn’t have details yet on what that package might be.

Jim Sponagle, the business manager for IBEW, told QCCR earlier this week that relations between the union and the region have not improved since the strike.

Thorpe, who started as CAO in June, said that’s incorrect.

“I would disagree with that statement based on the conversations I’ve heard since the labour action, the relations have improved.” 

Nothing will change for residents in how garbage and recyclables are collected, and the municipality’s solid waste facility will remain open. 

A company called Circular Materials will be taking over the sorting of recyclables from the region. That’s an organization formed by large corporations like MacDonald’s, Nestle Canada and Pepsico.

Thorpe said municipalities are still working out details of the agreement with Circular Materials, so she’s not sure yet how much money the region might save.

“What the specific impacts are to municipalities we’re still determining where the dust will settle. But the idea is that the producer would bear the lion’s share of the cost.”

Thorpe said officials with the region plan to meet with affected employees again next week.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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The Region of Queens is closing its recycling facility, which will result in job losses. (Nick Fewings via Unsplash)

UPDATED AT 3 p.m. Wednesday

Employees at the Region of Queens materials recovery facility will be laid off when the depot closes on Dec. 1.

The region said in a news release late Tuesday afternoon that the layoffs and closure are because of provincial changes to how recyclables are handled. The region’s solid waste facility employs 13 people, but the release did not say how many employees are affected.

Mayor Scott Christian told QCCR on Wednesday that eight employees work at the recycling facility. But he said the municipality will try to move them or retrain them for other available positions with the region.

“The first step is to try to retain staff if that’s possible to keep people in the organization and if they can’t be kept then to lay them off. And then whatever is contained legally in the bargaining agreement, we’d go from there,” he said.

“It sucks, it sucks. It’s challenging times, life is tricky to afford and there’s not a lot of good paying jobs in the community. It’s certainly not a decision that we made lightly.”

Christian said waste collection won’t change in the municipality. Collection dates or methods won’t be affected. The solid waste management facility will remain open. This change affects only who sorts the recyclable material.

In August 2023, the Nova Scotia government amended the Environmental Act to make recycling packaging and paper the responsibility of the producer, otherwise known as extended producer responsibility.

“No impact to the resident experience, it’s just that now with the extended producer responsibility … the producers of the packaging waste are responsible for figuring out what’s happening to that waste,” Christian said.

“It’s now the responsibility of the Jeff Bezos and the Walmarts of the world to deal with their own packaging.”

Circular Materials is a company formed by corporations that produce packaging waste, such as Loblaw, Coca-Cola, McDonald’s and others.

Christian said that company also offered to collect the recyclables, but the region opted out of that.

Jim Sponagle, business manager for Local 1928 of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, told QCCR on Tuesday that he found out about the job losses from a member of the local who works at the facility.

“The Region of Queens at no point contacted the union to advise the union what their intention was. Very disappointing,” he said in an interview.

“(We’ve) completely been blindsided by it. No discussion with the union, no conversation, we were completely in the dark.”

He said relations between the region and the union have not improved since a week-long strike in January, when almost 40 engineering and public works employees walked off the job for higher wages and improved overtime benefits.

Sponagle said Tuesday that some workplace issues are still outstanding from before the strike. He said he’d be contacting the union’s legal adviser to see how it can respond to the layoffs.

“I’m sympathetic to the members who will be losing their jobs. It’s disappointing for sure. We went through tough negotiation and we landed on a strike and I hope that wasn’t a determining factor as to why they chose to contract that work out that’s been done there for years. I can only sympathize with the members affected by the decision of the region.”

CAO Willa Thorpe said in the release that the municipality is “working directly with impacted employees at the MRF site to help them transition at this difficult time.”

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com

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