Province, municipality headed to court over waste transfer station

Nova Scotia's Department of Environment has laid five charges against the Municipality of the County of Annapolis in connection with the construction of a waste transfer station in West Paradise, N.S.

The charges are for starting and continuing the project without proper approval.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between Dec.20, 2019, and Feb. 25, 2020. A plea will be entered May 6.

John Ferguson, the chief administrative officer for Annapolis, said the municipality has consulted its lawyers, whosay the municipalityhas the proper permit for the project.

Correspondence posted to website

Municipal officials have posted correspondence between Ferguson and EnvironmentDepartment officials on their website.

In a letter dated Jan. 16, Jennifer Lonergan, a district manager with the Environment Department, authorizes the construction of the project.

But follow-up letters from Lonergan indicate that approval was issued inadvertently and the municipality's application would not be deemed complete until after public consultation.

Lonergan also wrote the Minister of Environment might reject the application if a plan for consultation was not submitted before May 11.

But in a letter written on Feb. 20, Ferguson wrote that 'the county does not accept the approval was issued in error."

Freedom-of-information request

Annapolis County has also filed a freedom-of-information request for correspondence about the municipality's application among Lonergan, the environment minister, his assistant and the deputy minister.

The municipality also wants correspondence between the department and Peter Muttart, the mayor of Kings County.

The construction of a waste transfer facility became necessary after Annapolis and Valley Waste, the regional waste management provider,parted ways in 2018.

Kings County and the towns of Annapolis Royal, Berwick, Kentville, Middleton and Wolfville are members of Valley Waste.

The dispute is now part of two lawsuits.

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