Chateauguay ceases to offer free ecocentre service

Chateauguay citizens can no longer go and deposit materials at the ecocentre ‘’free of charge’’ since October 22. Michel Thibault  Translation Dan Rosenburg The City, which had been assuming the costs, put an end to its contract with Conteneurs Rouville. This took place following a notice from the Public Markets Authority (AMP) ‘‘which wants to hold an investigation,’’ said Mayor Pierre-Paul Routhier at the municipal council’s public assembly of October 21 in Chateauguay. ‘’The citizens can still go there but they will have to pay,’’ the first magistrate specified. He let it be known that he didn’t understand the move by the Public Markets Authority. Conteneurs Rouville is not inscribed in the Non-admissible Enterprises Register (RENA) for public contracts, he explained. ‘’The enterprise offered us a very high-quality service. I don’t understand this (development) any more than you do,’’ he told a citizen who questioned the intervention of the Public Markets Authority. ‘’That group only has the power to make a recommendation,’’ the Mayor contended. On its internet site, the AMP indicates that the powers vested in it ‘’enabled it, according to a particular case, to make regulations, to formulate recommendations or even to suspend or cancel a contract.’’ Following its registration in the RENA, Melimax - which originally operated the centre - ceded its service contract to Conteneurs Rouville last August. The City of Chateauguay had concluded doing business with this enterprise after October 31. Meanwhile, the City entrusted the mandate to Nature-Action to propose alternatives. ‘’We are searching how to re-establish the service,’’ Routhier specified. He assures that he judged it important to offer an ecocentre to the citizens. A new formula is awaited at the beginning of the New Year. Payment controversy The City had not paid the Conteneur Rouville’s monthly bill of $27,000 since July 24, the Mayor mentioned. He had proposed to pay the balance due by October 1. His suggestion was not unanimous. Independent municipal councillor Francois Leborgne made another proposition.  ‘’I am asking for the retention of payments during the time that we see what is happening with the Public Markets Authority,’’ he explained. ‘’Our  lawyers suggest that we do not pay,’’ councillor Lucie Laberge observed. Leborgne’s propositon was put aside. Mayor Routhier said that the services had been rendered and that the municipality had to pay accordingly. His proposition was finally accepted by the majority. According to the Register of enterprises, the main shareholder of Conteneurs Rouville, Bianca Freeman, lives at the same address in Mercier as Mario Landry, owner of Melimax.