Richard Froese
South Peace News
Big Lakes County has accepted a request to join a working committee to study the future of the Swan Hills Waste Treatment Plant that the Alberta government plans to close by the end of 2024.
At its regular meeting Dec. 13, council supported a request from the Town of Swan Hills to form a working committee to consider the future of the facility.
Reeve Tyler Airth, Kinuso Councillor Roberta Hunt and Enilda/Big Meadow Councillor Lane Mon- teith were appointed to represent council on the committee.
Airth reeve says the committee will benefit both municipalities to discuss the future of the site.
“We want to find ways to re-purpose it,” Airth says.
“We are trying to lobby the government to keep the facility operating,” he adds.
The proposed working committte was discussed during a joint meeting with the two councils Nov. 14, cites a letter from Swan Hills Mayor Craig Wilson.
“We feel developing a joint working committee between the two municipalities would be the best approach to securing the future of the facility,” Wilson writes in a letter to Big Lakes council dated Nov. 15.
Wilson recommends the committee include three council members and one administrative representative from each municipality with the potential of adding other members from the community or industry in the future.
“Once committee membership is decided, the working group could get together to develop the terms of reference, roles and responsibilities,” Wilson says.
Council adopted a briefing document about the facility at its regular meeting Oct. 27, 2021.
“The closure will be a devastating blow to the community of Swan Hills and Big Lakes County,” the document states.
“We believe alternatives are are available for this site.”
Big Lakes is projected to lose $1.16 million in direct tax revenue each year.”
The plant also supports Swan Hills businesses, schools, hospital, recreation facilities and the real estate market.
For an industry town of 1,300 people with limited other employment options, eliminating 110 jobs means many of those employees and their families will move away from the community.
Big Lakes and the Town of Swan Hills councils requests the provincial government provide the two municipalities with a grant to find other possible options for the site.
Since it opened in 1987, the treatment plant has provided a vital public service by safely processing more than 295,000 metric tonnes of hazardous waste over 2,000 different waste profiles, the document says.
In 2020, the Government of Alberta announced it would begin to phase out the facility and by 2025 it would be fully closed leaving the province with an estimated environmental liability of $176 million.