Council for the RM of Corman Park has voted against an application to for a composting facility which would be used for the organic waste from the City of Saskatoon’s green bin program.

A news release from the City says Green Prairie Environmental was awarded the contract to provide organics processing services for the Curbside Organics Program and had applied to expand its existing solid waste disposal facility south of Saskatoon to include composting. The vote was 8 to 1 against adding the composting site.

The Reeve of the RM of Corman Park says Council voted against Green Prairie Environmental’s application to operate a composting facility for the City of Saskatoon because it’s too close to one of the more densely populated areas of the RM. Judy Harwood notes that there would be 20,000 tonnes of organics a year to be dropped off near a very desirable area, and at their meeting on Monday, the residents were loud and clear that they didn’t want it. The City awarded the organics processing service to GPE in 2020 and Harwood also wonders why the request hadn’t made it before the RM’s Council before now, with the organics program set to begin next week.

The City’s contract with GPE requires a contingency program, so any costs from that contingency will be carried by the contractor and not he City.The launch of the mandatory organics program is next week and collections will not be affected by the RM Council decision. The City says all eligible homes will have their green bins by the end of this week.