CIF staff recently completed spring outreach meetings around the Province, with municipal staff and politicians in Dryden, London, North Bay, Oliver Paipoonge, Peel, Smiths Falls, Spanish and Wawa. Despite some unforgiving late spring weather, participation was as strong as ever. Our sincere thanks to each host community and their staff for the great hospitality, to the guest speakers from AMO and WDO and to the many municipal staff who took time out of their busy schedules to participate.
Items on the radar…
CIF Update: While most participants are aware that CIF now reports directly to the WDO, for those who attended, Mike provided an overview of last year’s operational achievements, the implications of the new reporting structure and the decisions made regarding CIF’s continued operations. Key highlights included the results of the 2015 REOI process and an update on the 2016 Operations Plan. Mike noted that at WDO’s direction, CIF staff prepared a 3 year Strategic Plan and budget to continue operations through to the end of 2018. He emphasized that with this change, stakeholder input into the operation of the CIF will be even more important than ever before. With that in mind we encourage you to look over both, and forward your comments to CIF staff or your representatives on CIF Committee:
- AMO: Ken Brothers (kjbwater@gmail.com); alternate Monika Turner (mturner@amo.on.ca)
- City of Toronto: Vince Sferrazza (vsferra@toronto.ca); Annette Synowiec (asynowi@toronto.ca)
“We approached CIF staff at the Smith Falls outreach session inquiring about our upcoming multi-municipal contract negotiations and the CIF staff have agreed to assist. We are now preparing for our first meeting and are looking forward to working with CIF staff through this project. With CIF’s help we hope to develop a contract that is mutually beneficial for all four municipalities currently and throughout the transitions arising from Bill 151.” — Deanna Streifel, Environmental Engineering Officer, Town of Arnprior
Bill 151: An overview of the new legislation was presented to attendees and while the Bill raises more questions than answers, a number of key considerations were shared with session participants. With the prospect of it becoming law, staff emphasized the importance for municipalities to take the time to review their program costs and council’s interests so they will be able to understand the implications of regulatory schemes developed under the new Act. Opportunities for CIF to assist municipalities in exploring the possible implications of legislation and preparing for transition were also discussed. Tune in to the June 14th ORW for more information on this topic contact CIF staff if you have an idea you wish to pursue. Mike’s MWA presentation on this topic is also available at CIF’s What’s New webpage: view Positioning Your Program During Transition
WDO Update: Participants at the outreach sessions also identified several points they would like clarified such as, accounting for residue, residential recyclables from public space and BIAs and making the WDO Datacall User Guide more user friendly. CIF and WDO staff have compiled a list of questions raised by participants which will be forwarded to the Municipal Industry Programs Committee (MIPC) working group for consideration.
MIPC will be meeting on June 8th to develop a terms of reference for the expanded roles of the MIPC sub-committees to include improvements to the Datacall including the comments raised by session participants.
Important Information
As you know CIF maintains records of attendance at the Outreach Sessions and posts them at the Best Practices web page. The list of 2016 participants is available now under Objective 5.
Thinking of making a change?
Projects that generate savings remain a key priority of the CIF’s 2016 Request for Expressions of Interest (REOI). If you are considering a MRF upgrade we invite you to contact CIF staff to discuss your project ideas and how they might fit with the objectives of this year’s REOI.