Local News - Kirkland Lake:

Proponents of the Adams Mine project are committed to use as much local talent as possible in the development of the landfill site.

The target is to have the new landfill ready for operation in 2005, when Toronto’s current contract to ship garbage to Michigan expires.

Saturday, Adams Mine Rail Haul ran an advertisement in the Northern Daily News calling for expression of interest for the $50-million project.

Gordon McGuinty, of Rail Haul North said, “Cleary, we have made a commitment to Kirkland Lake and the other host communities that we would use to the greatest degree possible local contractors and local labour, and it’s our intent to follow through on that. To ensure that, we have put out this expression of interest to contractors throughout Northern Ontario, but particularly to Timsikaming-Cochrane to see who is available.”

McGuinty continued by saying that they want to ensure that everybody and anybody that’s able gets an opportunity to tender on the work.

“I personally have always taken the commitment we made to Kirkland Lake and the area very seriously in terms of ensuring we create jobs in the area,” said McGuinty.

While there will be some technical jobs that can’t be done locally, McGuinty said, “that doesn’t mean a company coming from Toronto or somewhere else can’t use local contractors, smaller contractors, if they have the expertise.”

The ad is a way for Rail Haul North to collect that information so it can be passed on to other contractors.

In terms of Toronto continuing to ship its garbage to Michigan, McGuinty sees the current contract as having run into problems that have increased the costs to Toronto.

“Since the contract didn’t proceed in 2000 (to ship Toronto’s garbage to Adams Mine), there continues to be significant problems with garbage getting across the border. Clearly the contract the City of Toronto has is costing them more money than anticipated.

“They’ve had to extend their transfer-station hours to 24 hours a day.

“I estimate that cost to probably be another $3 million a year and clearly Michigan continues to look at methods to frustrate the border,” said McGuinty.

He continued: “So we’re looking right now where there is a situation where there is approximately 3 million tons of garbage being exported to Michigan. The Toronto contract comes up for renewal in 2005, and it’s not just the Toronto garbage out there that is being frustrated.

“The issue is that we need to have alternative capacity in Ontario and subject to getting all our final permits...and the final things we have to do, yes, it is our intent to go ahead and develop the landfill,” said McGuintiy.

Some of the areas that the company is looking for local information include heavy equipment rentals, general contractors, mechanical contractors, electrical contractors, steel fabrication services, road building contractors, civil and mining engineering services, and aggregate crushing.

The development of the Adams Mine landfill site will include detailed design and engineering, shaft and adit construction, a water treatment plant, landfill gas utilization plant, new building construction and renovation, on-site and access road construction, upgrades to hydro electric plant and intermodal rail facility.

ID- 43362

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