Simcoe County committee confirms decision to trash plan for Springwater Township organics processing facility
Decision not to build facility could save taxpayers $220M over next 20 years
UPDATED: Committee of the whole has supported a recommendation for the county not to proceed with its own organics processing facility
By Ian Adams, Barrie Advance, February 27, 2024
Simcoe County council’s committee of the whole has officially recommended pulling the plug on a nearly 14-year-old plan to build an organics processing facility.
The committee unanimously supported a recommendation not to move ahead to build an Environmental Resource Recovery Centre (ERCC) in what is currently known as the Freele forest tract in Springwater Township.
Instead, the county will farm out its organics processing, with a three-year contract, and then a 20-year contract, in a move county officials estimate will be more than $220 million cheaper for taxpayers over the next two decades than the county having its own facility.
The project was taken to the Ontario Land Tribunal (OLT) by a residents’ group, and the OLT upheld the county’s decision to rezone the land in 2022.
“The ERRC project made financial and operational sense in 2016-17, and we would be in a strong position had it been built on our original schedule,” said Warden Basil Clarke in a statement released following the committee’s Feb. 27 meeting. “However, so much has changed within the waste management sector during the appeal process.
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