BFI Canada gets nod for county waste collection

$10.7 million bid provides 21 per cent savings for first year
By Kate Harries AWARE Simcoe April 6 2012
Simcoe County’s corporate services committee will decide next Wednesday whether to go along with a staff recommendation that the waste collection contract be awarded to BFI Canada for $10,659,388.84, starting April 1, 2013.

The report, published on the county website as part of the committee’s agenda, states that the amount is $2.6 million (21 per cent) lower than the $13,282,800 the county is paying for the same service in the current year.  An annual price escalation is built into the contract.
The length of the contract is 7 years, with a 2-year option to renew. It’s not clear why there was a departure from the Waste Management Strategy adopted by the last council, which recommended a five year term.
There has been controversy over moving to a single-source contractor, with a minority of council led by Penetnguishene Mayor Gerry Marshall arguing in favour of keeping two contractors in the game. Marshall also took exception to the county’s Request for Proposals process under which financial information was withheld from council to protect the business interests of the bidders.
If the committee approves the staff recommendation, the decision still has to be ratified by county council at its April 24 meeting.
BFI stands for Browning-Ferris Industries, a waste company founded in Houston, Texas in the 1960s and disbanded in 1999. The BFI brand no longer exists in the US. The company’s Canadian assets were aquired by a group of investors and it is now part of Progressive Waste Solutions Ltd. BFI Canada has aquired a number of companies, including, in 2010, Waste Services Inc., which provided service in South Simcoe.
Progressive Waste Solutions, headquartered in Vaughan, describes itself as one of North America’s largest full-service, vertically integrated waste management companies, providing non-hazardous solid waste collection and landfill disposal services to commercial, industrial, municipal and residential customers in twelve states and the District of the Columbia in the U.S., and in six Canadian provinces.
Previous coverage
‘Unknown’ bidder awarded county waste contract

County council votes for single contractor on curbside waste collection