Emterra Environmental sues Canadian city

Burlington, Ontario-based environmental services firm Emterra Environmental has filed a suit against the city of Winnipeg, Manitoba, for CA$67 million ($50.2 million), claiming the city failed to provide accurate information to the company regarding a recently concluded curbside collection program in the city.

According to an online report from Canada’s CBC, the Emterra suit alleges the city of Winnipeg failed to provide accurate data about the households in the city that required recycling and waste services, purchased inferior carts, changed the scope of its contract without informing the company and slapped the company with penalties without due process.

In its complaint, Emterra said it had 17 weeks to prepare to collect garbage, recycling, bulky waste or yard waste to serve about 200,000 locations. The firm claims the city provided inaccurate maps with numerous errors that included properties that were not identified with any carts at all.

Emterra’s complaint also states, according to CBC, that Winnipeg’s information contained more than 66,000 errors in total, resulting in faulty information for 18 percent of the carts in the program’s inventory. Costs related to the errors amounted to CA$12.1 million ($9.1 million), the firm states in the claim.

Emterra served as one of Winnipeg’s waste-collection contractors from August 2012 through September 2017. The city is now served primarily by two other firms, GFL Environmental and Miller Waste Systems.