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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Garbage piled up at one of the ‘greybox’ sites in Queens County. (Submitted)

Region of Queens officials plan to take action to curb the ongoing garbage problem in the county’s increasingly popular cottage country.

Councillors will vote on several recommendations at their June 25 meeting that they hope will mitigate chronic trash pileups and overflows at so-called “greybox” sites in areas such as Labelle and Molega.

There are about 40 greybox sites on or near private roads throughout the municipality. They consume half of the region’s garbage collection budget. 

The private roads do not have the regular garbage pickup service of most property owners who live on public roads. So the municipality has dropoff sites throughout the region where residents can deposit their waste, recyclables and compostables.

The region picks up the garbage once a week in spring, fall and winter and either two or three times a week in summer months.

District 6 Coun. David Brown has a lot of recreational or cottage properties in his area. In January, he asked the region’s staff to come up with possible solutions to the refuse abuse.

Brown said that especially in the busier summer months, people regularly just toss their trash on the ground around the greyboxes, instead of putting it inside. They’ll also leave big household items like furniture at the sites, even though the municipal landfill is nearby.

Even non-residents regularly leave their garbage, compounding the problem. Some bring their trash in on Fridays and dump them at the sites when they visit their properties on the weekends.

“The bylaw says that those grey bins are for the residents of private roads only for bagged garbage, created on site,” Brown said. “And people who are spending the weekend and dumping everything on Sunday night as they leave, a lot of that stuff can be taken to the landfill.” 

Region of Queens officials want to crack down on how people on private roads use greyboxes for their garbage. (Rick Conrad)

CAO Cody Joudry said he and other staff members have had many discussions about why the problem persists and how to fix it.

“At some of our worst sites, it starts to reach a threshold … at which it seems to overflow,” Joudry said. “And once one person does something, then all of a sudden everyone does it, sort of disrespect the whole thing.”

Joudry said staff suggest trying a few different things to see what works. He made five recommendations:

• install cameras to record when and how often the sites begin to overflow
• capture license plates of offenders and send notices to vehicle owners warning that further offences will result in fines
• add more greyboxes to see if it reduces the amount or frequency of overflows
• look for other locations where the boxes are less visible to non-residents
• increase the collection frequency at some locations from Dec. 1 to March 31.

Joudry said the region tried to install surveillance cameras at some sites years ago, but people stole them. He said staff have ideas about how to limit or prevent that from happening again.

Joudry said staff would report to council in mid-winter 2025 on the effectiveness of their efforts.

District 5 Coun. Jack Fancy said the areas have unreliable internet and cell service, so real-time surveillance may be difficult.

He said he’d also like to see an area for people to leave large items so they don’t get in the way of the greyboxes. He suggested a semi-annual “dump day” for people to drop large items, and to hold a roadside giveaway once a year.

“If we don’t get that big stuff moved out from in front of the bins, people are … going to throw their garbage down there and then somebody else throws the garbage there and then you’ve got the bins that aren’t even full, you can’t get at them becasue of the big items in front of them,” Fancy said.

Brown said that he hopes the situation will improve with some education and enforcement. 

“We as a region allow people to take four loads to the landfill every month without charge. … So if somebody has taken the effort to load a chesterfield on the back of a truck and drive it out to the grey bin and throw it on the ground in front of the bins, it’s an extra 15 minutes to go to the landfill and dispose of it properly.  … We need education and a little bit of enforcement and I think the problem will go away on its own.

“And I really applaud staff for coming through and trying an approach because for the past 10 years we have suffered from analysis paralysis. … This starts us on the approach to getting something done. And I think as word gets around that there’s some enforcment happening, people will not want to pay that $682.50 fine.”

The municipality says the extra measures could cost up to $40,000, with the majority of that going to increased weekly garbage collection in winter.

Email: rickconradqccr@gmail.com