REGINA — The opposition New Democrats were busy Monday reviving the issue of tire recycling in Saskatchewan.
At a news conference in Saskatoon, opposition Trade Critic Kim Breckner renewed her party’s crisis of the chain of events in which Saskatoon-based Shercom Industries lost the tire recycling contract for the province, with the south portion going to California based Crumb Rubber Manufacturing and the northern portion going to Emterra Tire Recycling.
Breckner pointed to an emerging situation east of the city where a mountain of unrecycled tires were piling up .
“Tires the Saskatoon company once recycled are now piled up so high at a government facility north of Clavet that they could be seen from space,” Breckner said.
Breckner also pointed to the loss of 100 jobs at Shercom, and described the decision to push Shercom out as “bad for jobs, bad for the environment, bad for our economy, bad for the future growth and prosperity of our communities.”
At the legislature Monday afternoon, NDP Economy and Jobs Critic Aleana Young grilled Environment Minister Travis Keisig on whether he would immediately restore the province’s tire recycling contracts to Shercom and clean up the massive tire pile north of Clavet.
Keisig responded that it is Tire Stewardship of Saskatchewan that are tasked with keeping tires out of the landfill and seeing all tires recycled across the province of Saskatchewan.
“The Government of Saskatchewan does not award contracts. The Tire Stewardship of Saskatchewan awards contracts. It is up to them to decide who receives the contracts. They award the contracts. They are in charge of all the recycling of tires in the province of Saskatchewan. These questions are best directed toward them.”
In a statement, the government had this to say:
"Tire Stewardship of Saskatchewan (TSS) is an independent, not-for-profit corporation and represents the more than 1,400 tire retailers who are obligated under the regulations to establish a program to collect, recycle and manage tires in all areas of Saskatchewan. The Government of Saskatchewan’s role is oversight to confirm regulatory requirements are met and is not involved in operational decisions about the program; that role rests with TSS. Any questions about the selection of processors would best be directed to them."
After Question Period, Young made it known she was not satisfied with the answers she got from the government.
She said Minister Keisig used the “exact same talking points that the former Minister of Environment used to use on this. I'm not sure if the briefing book was left in the desk, but seriously, the Minister did pass the buck today.”
Young also noted that during Question Period, Keisig “also pointed out that he was responsible for appointing the board for TSS, and that, in fact, he's expanded the board of TSS.”
“A pile of tires that you can see from space, 100 people in Saskatoon and area laid off, and a contract with a California-based company that costs three times as much money as a local Saskatchewan business — frankly, if this isn't the minister of environment's job, I would love to hear him say out loud into a microphone what he thinks his job is.”
– With files from Jon Perez
